Objective
by LozieDeanon
Summary: An evil NEXT with the power to issue absolute commands has found the perfect pawn for his latest scheme: Wild Tiger. Ordered to kill his partner, it's up to the heroes to keep Barnaby alive and oblivious… and to keep Kotetsu from losing his mind.
1. Ambush

A fill from the Tiger and Bunny Anon Meme (And for once not a oneshot!)

Prompt: _Kotetsu/Wild Tiger is targeted by a NEXT with the ability to plant a single thought in their victim's head, making them lose all sense of themselves and unable to rest until that thought is fulfilled. That the one thought? Kotetsu must kill Barnaby Brooks Jr. Cue the other Heroes figuring this out before Barnaby does and scrambling to find this NEXT while trying to keep Kotetsu from literally strangling his partner to death! As a bonus, Bunny has no idea this is going on._

I've been working with OP to bring this fill 'up to snuff.' Even if you've already read it on the Meme, I'll be taking into account concerns and comments and seeing what I can do to improve. Expect better spell-checking, some word-choice edits, and a few completely rewritten scenes.

Warnings: Violence.

* * *

><p>From the dedication of a public orphanage, a middle-aged man wearing a dour business suit and a Bluetooth earpiece followed Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks Jr to a TV studio. The security out front wouldn't allow him inside, but that didn't matter. He selected a bench outside and watched cars zoom back and forth, waiting, until the two heroes emerged two hours later and climbed aboard the armored Apollon Media transport. The man followed the enormous van in his small company-leased sedan, to a public park where Tiger and Barnaby donned their battle suits and posed for pictures. The man stood at the back of the crowd, watching them from the furthest distance possible.<p>

After that, the transport returned to Apollon, and the pair ascended the stairs to the great marble lobby, and then passed the security gates. The man couldn't follow them through the gates, so again, he waited outside, watching the giant plasma screen TVs broadcasting the OBC station to all of Sternbild. An ad for Hero TV played, a promo spot on Blue Rose. The images flashed before the man's blank, absent eyes.

Many hours later, Tiger emerged alone, left the lobby, and crossed Apollon's layered gardens to the parking garage. The man pulled his sedan around and watched carefully as cars exited the garage, and when a green SUV with a bearded driver pulled out, he followed it, through some small streets, onto the main highway, down two levels to the Bronze Stage, another highway, more streets, before they finally arrived at a row of homey-looking condos. Tiger parked outside of one of them, locked his car, climbed the steps, retrieved his mail, and entered.

The man also parked, ascended the stairs, and stood right on Wild Tiger's doorstep. But he didn't knock, or ring the doorbell, or in any other way alert the hero inside to his presence.

Instead, he spoke: "Objective complete."

The earpiece recorded his voice, transmitted it across town to a remote computer, which traced the signal and pinpointed the man's exact location, marking it as a point of interest.

Back on the other side of town, a middle-aged man wearing a dour business suit and a Bluetooth earpiece blinked and stared at the front door of this random condo. Why on earth had he come down here to the Bronze Stage? He lived on Silver, and his wife would be wondering where he was, with dinner getting cold. And this earpiece, it didn't belong to him. Taking the device from his ear and tossing it in a curbside trash can, he got back in his car and called his wife, telling her he had taken a bit of a detour, but he'd be home for dinner.

* * *

><p>Of all the life lessons Kotetsu had learned through the years, he'd have to say the one most forcefully crammed into his brain was, "you don't know what you have until it's gone." He detested photo-shoots and interviews and getting paraded around like a billboard in the First League… but then he got bumped down to the Second League, where he had all that from before <em>and<em> worse hours, less pay, and even less recognition than before, if that was possible.

But that didn't matter. It couldn't matter: he had to stay a hero, and a hero protected people. Maybe not as often as in the First League, or with as much thanks or compensation, but a hero kept the peace, always. And that's all that mattered.

That particular day had been incredibly hard: he and Barnaby had been dragged around the entire day to promo events and appearances, from an orphanage to filming a new TV ad to meeting fans in a park. Then he had his nose to the grindstone for the rest of the afternoon trying to finish up the day's paperwork before he finally went home. But, barely ten minutes after he _got_ home, his call band rang and called him back out for a wild goose chase for a ring of pickpockets. By midnight, they had only caught two of the supposed seven culprits, so Agnes finally called it a night and let the Second League go.

Kotetsu rolled back up to his home for the second time that day and dragged his feet up the stairs. It took two tires to get the key in the lock, but the door finally opened and he stepped inside, tossing his hat on the sofa and turning toward the kitchen. He wanted a beer. And then a shower. And then sleep.

But before all that could happen, Kotetsu froze. A man stood in the middle of his kitchen as if he owned the place: early thirties, maybe, with pale skin, midnight black hair, and eyes to match them both, dark irises and pure white sclera. He wore a suit much like Lloyds', the sort that men with money to burn wore to give the impression they had even more money to burn hidden away in secret bank accounts. When he noticed Kotetsu had spotted him, a smile played across his lips—meant to be pleasant, but in reality, anything but.

"Get out of my house," Kotetsu spoke first. "You've got three seconds before I call the cops."

"Why would Wild Tiger need the police to defend himself against a single intruder?" the dark man asked. Kotetsu bristled—he knew his hero identity. "Best not get them involved."

"What are you doing here?"

"There's something I want you to do for me."

"Are you from the mayor's office? The Justice Department?"

No, this is a personal matter. A wish of mine, so to speak." The man took three slow, deliberate steps toward Kotetsu. His shoes, probably made with the leather of an endangered animal, clicked on the linoleum. "I could probably ask someone else to do it, but this way, I kill two birds with one stone. Technically, only one of the birds will die, but the other will be as good as dead."

The hair on Kotetsu's neck stood on end. "What are you talking about?"

"A hero can't recognize me? They've had warrants out for my arrest for at least a few months now. This is a poor reflection on the Justice Department if heroes can't recognize criminals."

Though the man barely had enough bulk on him to break a toothpick, Kotetsu adopted a fighting stance when the man announced himself as a criminal. _What kind of psycho has the nerve to waltz into a hero's home and just_say, _flat-out, that he's a… oh no…_

"Luthor Bellisair," Kotetsu said. "For organized crime, kidnapping, conspiracy."

"Conspiracy?" Bellisair raised one eyebrow. "They've accused me of conspiracy, too?" And he laughed. A cruel, humorless laugh.

"All right, _now_ you've got three seconds before I break your spine in half!" Kotetsu cracked his knuckles for emphasis. "You're under arrest, Bellisair. Come quietly, and this won't hurt."

"But Wild Tiger, I haven't told you what I want from you yet," Bellisair's eyes glowed blue with an unknown NEXT ability. Kotetsu activated his own powers in preparation, he had only one minute, but it would probably help to be as injury-proof as possible…

"**Objective,**" Bellisair said. "**Kill Barnaby Brooks Jr.**"

"Oh, that's it?" Kotetsu powered down, crossed the room to retrieve his hat, and slapped it onto his head. "Don't get me wrong, Bellisair, you're still under arrest. Once Bunny's dead, you're going to jail for a _long_ time."

"Looking forward to it," Bellisair waved from the kitchen as Kotetsu grabbed his keys and left.

Bellisair caught sight of his reflection in the microwave, and his eyes glowed again with his power. Such a handy ability, the power to command—it made running his little crime empire so easy. Every hit man came for free, and he took his pick of the best assassins not in the business. To kill someone like Barnaby Brooks Jr, Bellisair needed another hero, and what better hero than his own partner, a man both Barnaby and the public trusted?

As he heard a car engine rumble to life outside, Bellisair looked around Kotetsu's condo a bit. Some art on the walls, personal photos in frames, a TV and a collection of old vinyl records. Nothing suspicious; the police would find no evidence of any grudge, forethought, or hit contract. The murder would be completely inexplicable.

Bellisair took an apple from a bowl on the counter and bit into it, walking back out the door. _Some are born killers… and some have killing thrust upon them._


	2. Interception

Occasionally, it surprised Antonio how frequently he ran into people he knew in the enormous city of Sternbild, with its twenty two million citizens and three grand Stages. But, whenever he wanted to, Antonio could pick a friend out of the giant crowds—and several times, he'd find these friends when they needed him most, without even looking.

In this particular evening, Antonio hadn't even known a friend was in trouble. All he cared, traffic had stopped completely and he wouldn't get home before dawn at this rate. Poking his head out the window, the gossip grapevine of cars in front of him announced the hold-up was an accident at the intersection. Well, as a hero, it was probably Antonio's responsibility to handle damage control until the cops arrived. Putting his hazard lights on, Antonio locked his car and wove through the blocked automobiles to the stop light up ahead.

A two-car accident: a station wagon t-boned a green SUV, kind of like the one Kotetsu drove. A harried looking woman stood beside the station wagon, wringing her hands at the damage.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Antonio said as he approached. "Do you know what happened here?"

"That car came out of nowhere!" the woman pointed at the other vehicle. "_I_ had the green light, I know it! But it just zoomed out, and I couldn't help but hit it!"

"Are you hurt?"

She hugged her elbows. "No, I'm fine… I mean, I'm not hurt, but look at my car! It's destroyed! "

Antonio looked. The front bumper looked mashed in, like someone decided the car had to be six inches shorter and then pushed on the front to take off that length. Antonio might not call it totaled, but it certainly sustained enough damage to make for some concerning repair bills. The other car had similar damage around the doors, like a box with one side punched in.

"Have you exchanged insurance information?" Antonio asked.

"No, the other driver was unconscious when I checked. And I've called the police and everything, but they're not here yet."

Just as she said that, there was a crinkle of glass and a metallic screech: the driver's side door to the crunched SUV opened, and the driver emerged, stumbled a bit, and then leaned heavily against the hood of the car.

"K-Kotetsu!"

Kotetsu peeled himself off the front of his car and waved. "Yo, Antonio!"

"You _know_ him?" the other driver asked, but Antonio ignored her and ran to his friend's side.

"What the hell, Kotetsu?" Antonio hissed. "Are you okay!"

"Fine, fine," Kotetsu waved his friend away, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Guess it was a bad idea to drive…"

"Are you drunk? Tell me you're not drunk."

"I'm not drunk, I'm just tired," Kotetsu took a deep breath and finally stood up straight and turned away.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"I gotta kill Bunny."

"…What?"

"I need to kill him," Kotetsu stretched his arms as he walked away from the crash site. "Let's see, I need a coffee for energy, a taxi to get to him, maybe I should get a knife, too…"

"Hey!" the woman from the poor crunched station wagon chased after Kotetsu. "Come back here! I need your proof of insurance!"

"No time for that!" Kotetsu responded. "Gotta go!"

"_What?_ You just totaled my car! Get back here, jackass!"

"Um, ma'am, please calm down, I'll get him," Antonio chased after his friend, and clapped a massive hand on his shoulder.

"Okay, explain," Antonio spun Kotetsu around to face him. "I know Barnaby gets on your nerves sometimes, but you don't have to _kill_ him."

"Yes, I do."

"Did you have a fight?"

"Nah, he's my partner," Kotetsu said with a broad grin. "If we fight, we work it out."

"But then why do you want to kill him?"

"It's my Objective."

Antonio slowly frowned. Kotetsu usually wouldn't have chosen a big word like 'objective;' he'd use 'goal' or 'job.' And it sounded so important when he said it. Not to mention Kotetsu would never walk away from a car accident without making absolutely sure everyone was safe. And even without being a car nut, he should at least be a little upset about the damage to his vehicle. Something was wrong here. Very, very wrong.

"How about this," Antonio said slowly. "If you go back to the crash, give that poor woman your insurance info, and help me clear the cars out of the street, I'll… drive you to Barnaby."

Kotetsu beamed at his friend, and clapped him on the arm. "Thanks, man! I thought it'd take me all night to find Bunny without a car." He strode back to the crash site, ignoring the scandalized woman's insults—"You run a red light, make me crash, and then think you can walk away? And then just come back like you didn't do anything wrong? Listen to me when I'm talking!"—and started digging around the wreckage of his car for his insurance information. Once Kotetsu produced the appropriate paperwork, he passed it off to the woman, and without another word, powered up and dragged his SUV across the pavement to the sidewalk.

"Ha—wh—eh—ah—" the woman spluttered, and Antonio pulled out his business card, the special one labeled Rock Bison with his publicity agent's contact information.

"There's a bit of an emergency right now, but call that number later, we'll get this sorted out," Antonio said as Kotetsu approached the woman's car. This time, Antonio helped him move the station wagon, and they pulled the wreckage over to the same curb. In a wholly unnecessary gesture, Kotetsu decided to lift the woman's car and stack it on top of his, "So it takes up less space," even though it meant damaging the woman's car further and absolutely destroying his own vehicle.

"What's wrong with you tonight?" Antonio asked. "You're a bigger moron than usual. Driving drowsy, stacking cars, saying you're going to kill Barnaby? This isn't like you."

"Hey! Don't call me a moron, idiot!" The blue glow faded, and Kotetsu stared at his hands. "One minute gone already? Huh, I guess I _do_ need a knife, if I can't use my powers to kill him."

His powers gone? This was Antonio's chance. Activating his power and essentially turning his own arm into an unstoppable object, Antonio swung at Kotetsu's head and knocked him out cold with a single blow. The woman screamed, and a few of the onlookers who had produced phones and video cameras gasped, but they could do damage control on the media later. If Kotetsu got out of hand and actually killed someone, a few video clips and GIFs of Rock Bison decking Wild Tiger would be mere annoyances. Antonio gathered his friend and flung him over his shoulder, while his other hand tapped his hero bracelet and called for backup.

"_Hello~?_"

"Fire Emblem, it's me."

"_Ah, Sweetcheeks!_" Antonio blinked. Sweetcheeks? "_Any particular reason you're calling me so late at night~?_"

"Tiger's lost it," Antonio glanced around at the civilians and started walking back toward his car. "Sort of. I don't know what happened, but he keeps saying he needs to kill Barnaby."

"_That's dark for our goofy old Tiger._"

"I thought so, too. He's not angry or anything, and he says they didn't have a fight. He just keeps talking about it like it's no big deal. Something about an objective, something important."

"_So you think there's something causing Tiger to have such violent urges?_"

"Pretty much."

"_Have you called Handsome yet?_"

"I don't want to be the one to tell him that pretty much the only guy in the world he trusts suddenly wants to kill him. Not without knowing what's going on."

"_A reasonable concern,_" Nathan said. "_So what's your next move, Bison?_"

"Well, I knocked Tiger out, and I need to take him somewhere more private to—"

"_You _naughty_ man~…_"

"That's not funny," Antonio groaned in exasperation. "We've got to keep him away from Barnaby. He really sounds serious about killing him."

"_Fair enough. But how are we going to stop Tiger? Wait!_" Nathan's voice took an edge of semi-sincere panic. "_Does this mean that the Dream Team must be forever broken? The invincible Tiger and Barnaby can never see each other again? Ah, the tragedy~!_"

"I don't think it's that bad," Antonio finally wormed his way back to his car. "We need to find out why Tiger has to kill Barnaby, and stop whatever it is that's making him do it."

"_Should I call the others, rally the troops somewhere? I own a little bar that should be closing for the night soon._"

"Thanks. Call everyone, except Barnaby. Hopefully, we can work this out before he has to get involved. Do you have everyone's cell numbers, to text the address?"

"_I do. __And now you owe me one, right?_"

"What? No way! Fire Emb—"

"_Ciao, Sweetcheeks~!_"

The call ended, and Antonio stared down at his wrist. _Great._ Now Nathan will never leave his ass alone. And if Antonio really had such 'sweet cheeks,' as Nathan said, why weren't there any women interested in him?

Unlocking the car, Antonio dropped Kotetsu in the back seat and then took the wheel, joining the now-flowing river of traffic. Checking his rear-view mirror, Antonio glimpsed at Kotetsu's unconscious mug—slack-jawed, cheek jammed against the window, drooling a teensy bit.

_Who wants Barnaby dead?_ Antonio wondered. _And why do they want Kotetsu to be the one who kills him?_

His phone buzzed, and then he checked the message at the next stop light. Nathan had texted him the bar's address as planned, so Antonio took a U-turn and set off for the emergency hero meeting.


	3. Strategy

Antonio stood in the doorway, frozen, the still-unconscious Kotetsu slung over his shoulder, staring at the interior of the bar Nathan had sent him to. The Favorite Flame practically oozed velvety plush fabric, from the carpet to the booth benches to curtains hung across doorways. The lights were shaded with red and pink plastic covers and amorous shadows around the venue, including across a stage with a few silver poles that definitely were not there for structural support.

Of course Nathan would own a gay bar. Of course he would make it their emergency anti-murder HQ.

It was thankfully empty, the patrons, performers, and staff alike gone for the night. The only other human being in the bar was Nathan, dressed in something that he most likely just threw on: black dress slacks and a fuchsia button-down. Antonio would almost call the outfit straight, but as Nathan approached, the shirt glittered with a silver weave blended in with the fabric. _He wouldn't be Fire Emblem without_ something _sparkly_.

"Ah, you're here! Come in, come in! Lie him down!"

Nathan designated a semi-circular booth for Kotetsu, something to support his head without his legs jutting out into the middle of the room. Antonio chose a nearby rectangular booth, and for once, Nathan slid in to the opposite side, leaving Antonio's personal space intact.

"So tell me again, now that you're settled. From the beginning," Nathan folded his hands and rested his chin on them.

It wasn't much, but he told Nathan everything he could remember: Kotetsu's disregard for his own safety and the safety of others; the calm insistence he had to kill Barnaby, like he was running errands: buy milk, pick up the dry-cleaning, murder his partner; the way he said the word 'objective,' like a proper noun, or the name of a god.

"Is this the work of some nefarious NEXT?" Nathan asked.

"What makes you think that?"

Nathan shrugged. "Usually whenever something strange and unexplainable happens, there's a NEXT causing it. And only a supernatural power could make Tiger even _dream_ of hurting Handsome."

"You're right," Antonio said. "So what kind of power are we looking at? And how do we undo it?"

"Mm, I'd _love_ to know," Nathan mumbled, glancing over at Kotetsu. "And you're sure it's the right decision to not wake Handsome and bother his pretty little head about this? If anyone could knock some sense into Tiger, it'd be him. Like the way Tiger restored Handsome's memories."

"We can't risk it. Back then, Barnaby was trying to arrest Tiger, and he only got violent because he was angry. Tiger isn't angry—he's out to kill, and I don't think he'll wait for Barnaby to put up a fight. If we can just get this figured out before they meet each other, then Barnaby won't even have to know."

Nathan continued staring at Kotetsu. "Hearts get broken all the time… but I think Tiger and Handsome have had their hearts shattered more times than you can expect a person to bear." Before Antonio had much time to contemplate that sentence, Nathan grabbed his hand and hooked their pinkies together.

"Promise! We, as heroes, shall defend the fragile remnants of Tiger and Handsome's beautiful hearts~!" Nathan declared passionately.

"Uh… sure?"

Satisfied, Nathan shook their fingers, and let Antonio's hand go. "Are you thirsty? Can I fix you a drink?"

"Just water. I don't trust Tiger to drive, so I'm his ride."

"Got it~…"

Antonio got antsy, waiting for the other heroes to arrive, his mind spinning as he tried to remember something about his encounter with Kotetsu that could give them some sort of clue or lead. The only thing he managed to think of was that Kotetsu could try to call Barnaby when he woke up, so he quickly removed Kotetsu's call bracelet off his wrist, rolling it around on the table as he sipped the glass of water Nathan provided.

Gradually, the other heroes assembled: Keith, still in his Sky High costume from his evening patrols; Ivan, with a _very_ bad case of bed head; Karina, yawning openly; and Pao Lin, apologizing for being so late—she had to wake Natasha to drive her. With each arrival, Antonio's story became more concise, until he could sum up the situation in one sentence: "We think a NEXT is compelling Tiger to murder Barnaby." From there, he addressed the heroes' natural reactions, "that's impossible, Tiger and Barnaby are partners, Tiger would never kill anyone," etcetera, etcetera.

"I don't believe it," Karina shook her head again. Even having heard the story twice—once for her benefit, once for Pao Lin's—it hadn't quite seeped in. "Tiger's told us a thousand times, he's a hero because he wants to protect people. I don't believe he'd just wander off to kill Barnaby."

"That's what I found him doing," Antonio said. "It's probably a NEXT power, not his will, anyway."

"I just know Tiger's not that kind of person!" She insisted. "Besides, NEXT powers aren't perfect. Remember, Maverick's altered memories could be broken. Tiger would just fight off whatever was trying to make him evil!"

"We can ask him what happened, once he wakes up?" Pao Lin shrugged.

"He's been out for this long, Sweetcheeks must have knocked him pretty hard," Nathan said.

"When the hell did you decide to start calling me that?" Antonio protested. He let it slide earlier, but in front of everyone else? Maybe this was how Barnaby felt when Kotetsu called him 'Bunny.'

As if he knew the heroes were talking about him, Kotetsu stirred, flinging one arm aside and whacking it against the table with a dull _thud_.

"_Ow_…" he moaned pathetically. He drew in his arm again and curled around it, before finally sitting up. "What the…?"

"Mr. Wild?" Keith asked.

"Where am I?"

"The Favorite Flame," Nathan answered. "Just a little hole-in-the-wall I run."

"…Why am I here?" Kotetsu blinked a few more times and looked around the assembled heroes. "Anton… Um, Bison said he'd take me to Bunny."

"Just a detour, darling," Nathan said. "You understand, he's a bit shocked that you want to kill your partner. We all are."

"Yeah, I guess," Kotetsu switched from rubbing his injured arm to the side of his head. "But you didn't have to hit me so hard! I'll get you back for this, later."

"So you really want to do it?" Pao Lin interjected.

"Do what?"

"Kill Barnaby!"

"Yep!"

"Why?" Karina slammed her hands down on the table. "You're not a killer, Tiger! A hero defends people, right?"

"Of course!" Kotetsu responded indignantly. "That's what being a hero is all about!"

"Do you think Barnaby is hurting people?"

"No, Bunny's a hero, too," Kotetsu agreed, then trailed off, rambling a little: "Probably deserves to be in the First League, but because of me, he's…"

"Then you can't kill him! That's not something a hero would do!"

Kotetsu laughed. "You've got it all wrong, Blue Rose," he said. "This isn't something I'm doing because I'm a hero. It's my Objective."

That word again, the capital-o-Objective.

"What's this 'Objective?'" Keith asked.

"Kill Bunny."

"We know that part," Antonio cut in. "But why is it so important? Why can't you ignore it?"

"Ignore my Objective? That's crazy, Bison. The Objective is the thing I have to do."

"But why do you have to do it?"

"Because it's my Objective."

"Recursive logic," Ivan spoke up. "He has to do it because he has to do it. We can't reason with him."

"Wait," Karina slid into the booth beside Kotetsu, and took one of his hands in hers. "Tiger… do you remember when you first met Barnaby? All the way at the very beginning. He saved your life."

"That princess carry," Kotetsu smirked at the memory.

"He never stopped saving you, either. Whenever you needed help, _Barnaby_ was the one to help you. And when he needed help, you were there for him. You both have done so much for each other. You're the best set of partners in the whole world, and the whole world knows it. You'll do whatever it takes to protect your partner. Right?"

"Yeah," Kotetsu agreed quietly. The whole room leaned in, tension mounting.

"We saw it in Barnaby. As he got closer to you, he became warmer and happier. But you might not notice it yourself, but he changed _you_. He brings out the best in you, your strength, your compassion, your… your _heart_. Barnaby's that person! Am I wrong?"

"No," Kotetsu stared down at his large hand, clasped between Karina's smaller hands. "You're right… Bunny and I…"

"Would you ever do _anything_ to hurt someone that important to you? For any reason?"

"…Never."

"So do you understand? This Objective is wrong! If you kill Barnaby, then it'll harm him! And you just told me you'll never do anything to harm him! Please, Tiger! You don't want to do this!"

Kotetsu stared at Karina, covered her hands with his, leaned in… and burst out laughing.

"Good one, Blue Rose," Kotetsu chuckled. "But you don't get it. No matter what happens, I have to kill Bunny. I just do."

"This is crazy!" Antonio hit his leg with a fist. "Kotetsu, get a hold of yourself and listen to what you're saying! You want to _kill your partner!_"

"I don't get why you're all so mad about this!" Kotetsu pulled his hands away from Karina. "How many times do I have to say it? I'm going to kill Bunny! Maybe I can explain it to you better after I kill him, but I'm kind of busy."

"What do you mean by busy?" Karina asked. "What could you possibly have planned after killing your partner in cold blood?"

"Once I finish my Objective, I have to arrest Bellisair, and then kick Antonio's ass. And then I _might_ have time to tell you why my Objective was so important, depends on if the Second League gets called for anything. I kill Bunny tonight, I won't have to miss work."

"Bellisair?" Everyone latched onto the unfamiliar name.

"Yeah," Kotetsu nodded, frowning a bit. "Broke into my house, the bastard, and he knows my identity. Once my Objective is done, he's going down."

"So is Bellisair… blackmailing you with your identity?" Ivan ventured.

"Blackmailing me? To do what?"

"Kill Barnaby."

"No, no!" Kotetsu turned the frown on his friends. "I've told you guys a hundred times, killing Bunny is my Objective! Bellisair's just a criminal that I need to haul off to jail, like all the other criminals."

"Bellisair's the NEXT!" Pao Lin exclaimed. Everyone looked to her, and she looked to Kotetsu. "Tiger, when did you, uh, remember you had this Objective?"

"Eh?" Kotetsu scratched at his beard. "Um, actually, right when I went to arrest Bellisair, I remembered I have to kill Bunny. So I left and told him I was coming back."

"He's still at your house?"

"Yep! He knows I'm coming back to arrest him. Said he was looking forward to it."

"Oh, good!" Keith grinned. "So now we know right where to find him!"

"Sky High, I think Bellisair was being sarcastic," Antonio said. "Even if I hadn't stopped Tiger, it'd take him probably an hour to get to Barnaby's apartment in the Gold Stage, kill him, and then get back. He had a clear getaway window."

"It's still a starting point," Karina said. "This is a big problem, but I think we can divide and conquer. We need to find Bellisair, warn Barnaby—"

"Actually, we've decided against that, honey," Nathan explained. "You know how much Handsome depends on Tiger, to this day. He wouldn't react well to being told his partner wants to kill him. Worse, his first move might be to find Tiger, which will probably mean he dies."

"Oh! So I should tell Bunny I want to kill him!" Kotetsu brightened and tapped his hero bracelet, but no call began. He looked down at his bare wrist and realized the bracelet was gone. "Hey, who took my call band?"

The heroes looked around, thinking back to the order of arrival and wondering who had a clear shot at snatching the bracelet.

"This isn't funny, guys! Give it back! What if there's an emergency and they can't call me?" Kotetsu insisted.

"Look, we know you're going to use it to call Barnaby," Antonio said. "Don't pretend it's something else."

Sighing in frustration, Kotetsu reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. "Fine. I guess I'll just—"

But before he could even dial, Ivan, who had been lurking in the background, plucked the phone right out of Kotetsu's hand with a ninja-fast swipe. "Sorry, Tiger-san, but I need to hold on to this."

"Origami! Gimmie, that's mine!" Kotetsu squirmed in the booth and reached for his phone, but Ivan casually tossed the device back and forth, keeping it out of Kotetsu's grasp.

"Think of it this way, Tiger," Nathan started smoothly. "You know Handsome's power lasts longer than yours. Sad, but true. If you announce that you want to kill him, he'll be on his guard. You need to kill him when he least expects it. Be sneaky."

"Ah, good point," Kotetsu tapped the side of his head. "I'll remember that!"

Antonio leaned over and whispered, "What the hell are you encouraging him for? Don't give him pointers!"

"Sweetcheeks, when was the last time Tiger succeeded at being sneaky?" Nathan hissed, before continuing in a louder voice, "If you want to be even more clever, you could try poisoning him. Make him a delicious home-cooked lunch and then let him die while you get on with the next items on your to-do list."

"I wouldn't have thought of that!" Kotetsu smiled. "But, where do you get poison?"

"You have all night to figure that out," Nathan said. "Go home, read the warning label on all your cleaners, some brands are lethal."

"Aha! Thanks, Fire Emblem!"

All the heroes glanced worriedly at Nathan, surprised by his knowledge of improvised poisons. Nathan just shrugged. "What? I had a bad breakup once."

"Does that mean you—you—"

Nathan waved Karina's concern aside. "Please, nothing so morbid. But I _did_ read the labels. Super Dish cleaning spray says you need a doctor if it even _touches_ your mouth… So tempting."

"Wait, but Super Dish is used to clean dishes, which… you eat off of," Pao Lin said. "So it can't be that dangerous, right?"

"All I know is what I read…"

The heroes all quieted down, committing to memory to never, ever, _ever_ make Nathan Seymour angry. And to stop using Super Dish cleaning solution.

"So… are we done? Can I go now?" Kotetsu said. "I gotta cook lunch for Bunny."

Even without mentioning the word 'kill,' the heroes suppressed a shudder. The new phrasing sounded jarringly innocent and euphemistic.

"Yeah, we're done. I'll drive you home," Antonio decided, standing up.

"You won't knock me out this time? Or lie, or steal my stuff, or take me somewhere else?"

"I promise. Now c'mon, idiot."

Kotetsu slid out of the booth and stumbled toward the exit, exhaustion and pain messing with his depth perception. It was a stroke of luck he crashed his car, and then trashed it by putting someone else's car on top of it. Antonio waited just long enough to get Kotetsu's cell phone from Ivan and make a 'call me' gesture, before following the crazed hero.

The five remaining heroes took a deep, relief-laden breath, and set to work.

"So," Karina said, drawing up a list on a cocktail napkin. "We need to find Bellisair."

"Keep Tiger away from Barnaby," Ivan added.

"And keep Barnaby away from Tiger!" Pao Lin finished.

"Okay! So what resources do we have? Ourselves and our powers…" Keith counted off on his fingers.

"Should we tell the Second League heroes?" Karina asked.

"They might tell Handsome, but if we can make up the right excuse, they could buy us time," Nathan said. "Let's use them as a last resort." Karina wrote them down.

"And Ms. Agnes would help," Pao Lin said thoughtfully. "She's a really good liar, too. Remember when she tricked Maverick into thinking she hadn't got her memory back? I think we can tell her the truth."

"Good idea," Karina added the producer's name to the napkin. "And we need more information on Bellisair. If he's the NEXT, we need to make sure he can't turn any of _us_ into murder-drones."

"If there's a warrant for his arrest, the Justice Department will have a file on him," Ivan added. "We could call Justice Petrov. And in a worst-case scenario… he'll at least know that Tiger didn't have a choice. He might show mercy."

The heroes looked—up, down, away—as the worst-case scenario played out in their minds. Finally, Karina shook her head, and clutching their cocktail napkin list, stood up.

"It won't come to that! We won't let it!" she declared. "We'll find out how to undo this NEXT power, and save our friends!"

"Here, here!" Keith raised his arms in his classic Sky High salute. "We can save them, and again, save them!"

"Tiger-san and Barnaby-san would do the same for us!" Ivan nodded.

"Nothing will stop us!" Nathan clapped his hands and nestled them to the side of his cheek.

"Go, team!" Pao Lin cheered.

Invigorated and inspired, the heroes returned home for their last few hours of sleep, because come sunrise, the real work began.


	4. Direction

Barnaby woke to the gentle but persistent pinging of his alarm at six-thirty in the morning after a rather restful night of sleep. He got up, stretched a bit, and took his shower. Dressed in a robe and with his hair wrapped in a turban, he set about starting breakfast, sliding two pieces of whole-wheat bread in the toaster and brewing coffee. While he waited, he returned to his bedroom, made his bed, applied moisturizer cream to his face, and let his hair out of the turban so it wouldn't crinkle. By the time he finished, the toast and coffee were done, so he spread jam on the toast and added a dash of milk to the coffee. It was the sort of lovely, carefree morning that really made him appreciate this gift of life that he possessed, made him dream of all the wonders he could achieve, made the horrors of the past endurable.

It was the sort of morning that made him think of Kotetsu.

With breakfast finished, Barnaby dressed and returned to the bathroom to add a little volume to his bi-monthly perm with some gentle sweeps of his ceramic curling wand. Hair appropriately fluffed, Barnaby slipped his wallet, keys, and phone into their usual pockets and left the apartment building, waving to the doorman as he passed. He endured the morning rush to work with surprising ease, periodically rolling down his window to let in the warm morning sunshine, until he arrived at Apollon Media.

He offered the stoic secretary Ms. Carter a pleasant "Good morning," and sat at his desk to begin the day's work, reviewing his schedule—shooting for a TV ad, a Monthly Hero interview, and an autograph session. It didn't quite allow much time for breaks, but Barnaby couldn't imagine anything, even exhaustion, bringing down his mood that day. Well, if he had a little bit of time, he should start on paperwork before Kotetsu arrived, the boring stuff that he could never quite stay focused on with the boisterous old man present.

That lasted barely half an hour, because unlike a certain Crusher for Justice, Barnaby incurred very few damage fines and always filed the resulting paperwork before it had a chance to accumulate. But to Barnaby's surprise, Kotetsu still hadn't shown up. The second desk beside him remained distressingly empty.

Strange. Apollon Media had an office protocol regarding late arrivals, and Kotetsu had a personal protocol regarding obeying protocol to the letter. The old man walked a fine line between insubordination and obedience. He hated paperwork and media events, but he always fulfilled his obligations at the last possible second, for fear of losing his ability to be a hero. At thirty minutes, the rulebook marked Kotetsu an absentee that day, which reflected poorly on his record, weakening his job security…

Before he gave himself a small panic attack worrying about his partner, Barnaby asked, "Excuse me, Ms. Carter, but did Kotetsu call in sick today?" The reason for irregular behavior is usually the easiest one, anyway.

"He did," Agnes appeared suddenly, entering the room with a purposeful stride. "Highly infectious. He can't come in."

Barnaby stared at the executive producer as she expertly navigated the office space, from desk to filing cabinets to Ms. Carter's computer, to the filing cabinets again. Frustration wrinkled her immaculate makeup.

"The events for today wanted Tiger _and_ Barnaby," she said, half to Barnaby, and half to herself. "So if there's no Tiger, there's no point. The sponsors are losing patience, they expect _me_ to fix everything…"

She continued blazing through the office, grabbing pages off the printer and sliding them into more folders while simultaneously gathering pages from other files and compiling them in one large manila envelope.

"Since the day is ruined, Barnaby, go see Dr. Saito in Engineering. He's been pestering me for weeks about putting your suits through extreme testing. Now's as good a time as any."

"Ms. Agnes, what did Kotetsu say he's ill with?" Barnaby asked. "Maybe if he wore a mask over his mouth, he could still attend the Monthly Hero interview, at least."

"_Barnaby_," Agnes snapped, turning his direction with a sharp click of her high heels. "My stress is through the roof trying to reschedule all these events. Please don't make my life any harder by arguing with me. Go to Saito and try to stay out of my way for the rest of the day."

Barnaby's jaw almost dropped—it didn't, but almost. Agnes had never scolded him before. The sensation punctured his good mood like an arrow through a child's balloon and left him hollow and dejected. Today started out as such a good day, but with Kotetsu sick and Agnes angry…

There was nothing he could do about it, either. Barnaby logged off his computer and left the workstation, saying over his shoulder, "Understood, Ms. Agnes. I'll leave now."

As Barnaby left, mind filled with concern for his partner, Kotetsu's job, his own job, and Agnes' sanity, the executive producer watched the back of his head. Once the door shut behind him, she tore the useless pages she had just printed in half and dropped them in the recycling bin.

"Thanks for playing along, Amanda," Agnes said to Ms. Carter, flipping a strand of hair over her shoulder. "The pains of hero work. Secret identities, covert operations in the office…"

"You're telling me," Ms. Carter returned to typing. "I'll have the ratings projections to you by lunch."

"Thanks, Amanda. And I'm still looking for the Hero Swim photo-shoot file for you," Agnes promised. "Including the shots they couldn't run in the magazine."

With that, she left the room much more calmly than how she had entered it, giving Ms. Carter a chance to enjoy the serenity that came from working without Sternbild's favorite hero duo bickering away.

* * *

><p>Ivan hated playing the hero card. Literally; he had a special card for this sort of occasion, when a hero needed discrete access to high-ranking people in sensitive places. But it meant spending a lot of time in claustrophobic waiting rooms, listening to people hiss at each other outside as they verified the authenticity of the card, then came and asked him for special serial numbers and a gauntlet of personalized security questions: "What was your room number at Hero Academy? Where were you when your NEXT ability appeared? Which disease did you contract when you were ten years old?" including a few decoy questions meant to throw off impersonators: questions asking about events that didn't happen ("At what age did your paternal grandfather die?" "Both my grandfathers are alive.") and questions that Ivan was supposed to answer with pre-set lies ("Under what screen name do you use the Hero TV chat forums?" "Papercraner," though the correct answer was "_origamically.") And more tricks and checks and poking and probing.<p>

It wasn't fair. Justice Petrov had the heroes on speed dial, while Ivan had to jump through all these hoops to see him outside of court. It didn't help Ivan had the sneaking suspicion that these security measures weren't anywhere near as tight until a NEXT that could perfectly mimic other people's appearances and voices joined Hero TV.

Eventually, the woman at the front desk pinned a visitor's badge to the front of Ivan's lilac jacket and brought him up to Justice Petrov's office, a space _much_ smaller and less extravagant than the corporate sponsor offices Ivan frequented, but it had an odd atmosphere to it, with simple though obviously well-crafted furniture and low light. It felt eternal and unyielding, a lot like justice. Or a tomb.

Justice Petrov sat behind his desk, typing with one hand as the other stirred a steaming teacup. He looked up as Ivan entered, and set the spoon aside.

"Origami Cyclone. A pleasure." He gestured to a seat for Ivan, who nodded and took it.

Petrov really didn't get along with Ivan. It helped—or did it?—that the two rarely saw each other, since Petrov worked long hours in this secluded office of his while Ivan made a point to stay in the background and never damage anything. Maybe the dislike stemmed from when they first met, and Petrov fined Ivan for contempt of court procedures when he called the judge "Petrov-sensei" instead of "Justice Petrov" or "Your Honor." Nevertheless, Ivan volunteered for this job: Karina and Pao Lin had school and tutoring, Nathan was gathering less official intel from the streets, and Keith and Antonio had to spell each other looking after Kotetsu and explaining to everyone's bosses that Tiger and Barnaby were in the midst of a crisis no one could actually tell them anything about.

So, Ivan got to go meet the Honorable Justice Yuri Petrov. Not his idea of a fun morning. But last night didn't count as a fun night, either.

"How can I help you," Petrov said, following the dull, formal script of a judge meeting a hero and not even bothering with an inquisitive inflection.

"I need everything the Justice Department knows about a man named Bellisair," Ivan said.

Petrov clicked a few keyboard keys, and a holographic screen popped up with a warrant. With the touch of a button, the display flipped so that Ivan could read the words: Luthor Bellisair, NEXT, wanted for organized crime, kidnapping, conspiracy, and then suspected of a laundry list of other crimes, all typical crime-ring infractions, but none of them confirmed under his name.

"What is his NEXT ability?" Ivan asked.

"Unknown," Petrov answered. "Our detectives speculate it's a confusion-type power."

"Confusion?"

"We have nothing conclusive." Petrov took a sip of tea. "If this is all the information you require, then I'd like to ask you to leave. I am extraordinarily busy."

"No, this isn't enough," Ivan curled his fingers around his knees. _For Tiger-san and Barnaby-san…_ "Has Bellisair been linked to people who talk about an 'Objective?' Something that they have to do no matter what, even if it's a crime?"

The tea froze, halfway down from Petrov's lips. "Bellisair has been… linked to such individuals."

Ivan's heart leapt. "There have been others? Who?"

Petrov set the teacup aside and started typing again. A series of files opened on the holo-screen in quick succession, arrest records for otherwise normal-looking people, eyes sad and scared in their mug shots.

"There have been a wide range of strange crimes," Petrov said. "The Justice Department recognizes three assassinations as connected to each other. The victims and murderers all have very little in common, with the exception that the assassins showed an open and single-minded devotion to their goal, which they referred to as their Objective. These otherwise unremarkable people avoided arrest and escaped custody through determination, but once their target was dead, they became confused and disoriented, and stopped resisting authorities. They could account for all of their actions, such as entering restricted areas, obtaining weapons, and killing the victim, but they could not recall their motives."

"What happened to them?"

"Two are serving maximum sentence. 250 years. One is a victim of Lunatic."

"No!" Ivan leapt to his feet. "It's not their fault! They aren't killers!"

Petrov stared at Ivan with his eerily empty eyes. "And your evidence?"

"Uh…" He sat back down as suddenly as he had stood up. Even if the heroes agreed to make the judge aware of the true situation, Ivan didn't want to tell him, as if repeating the terrible truth would mean that last night had not been a bad dream. "We've… found someone."

"Found who?"

"A person with an Objective. He mentioned meeting Bellisair right before… it started."

"Is it another assassin?"

"Yeah."

"Who is he targeting?"

"W-Well… Barnaby."

"Barnaby Brooks Jr, the hero?"

Ivan nodded.

"Have you or the other heroes arrested him?"

Shamefully, Ivan shook his head. He heard Petrov's office chair creak as he leaned back, a slight change filled with disapproval. "But there's a reason why we didn't! He's… he's under surveillance! In custody, I guess."

"Who?"

"Sky High and Rock Bison are taking shifts—"

"Not the heroes. The man. Who is he?" Petrov pressed. "These Objectives can turn normal people into murderers. Surveillance will not suffice, unless you want to be an accessory in the murder of Barnaby Brooks Jr."

"…It's Wild Tiger."

Lawyers, aides, and lesser judges continued on their busy way outside the office as the hero and the judge sat in absolute silence. Dust floated through the air, illuminated by sunbeams streaming through the half-closed Venetian blinds. And Petrov stared at his desk as if he could burn a hole right through it, while Ivan watched him as unobtrusively as possible. He had never seen a person sit so still, with such strange shadows cast across his flat, pale face.

"I see," Petrov said at long last. "So that's what he wants…"

"Huh?"

"Who else is aware of this situation?"

"The First League heroes and Agnes Joubert know everything," Ivan answered. "Dr. Saito, an engineer at Apollon Media, knows he needs to keep Tiger and Barnaby away from each other. We might tell the Second League heroes that, too, but only if we have to."

"But you haven't told Brooks."

"No. If we can fix this quickly, it'll be like it never happened."

Petrov lifted the teacup and took another sip. The tea's temperature surprised him; apparently he and Ivan had been talking for longer than he thought. "While a cover-up is not congruent with my beliefs, I understand your decision to protect the mental well-being of your colleague. I will grant you full access to everything the Justice Department knows concerning Luthor Bellisair. His hideouts, his accomplices, his signatures and methods."

"Th-Thank you! We'll be sure to capture Bellisair and stop Tiger-san—um—" Ivan suddenly stopped short and eyed the judge sheepishly. _I slipped up._

"Please speak to my assistant. He will gather Bellisair's files for you." Petrov stood, and offered Ivan a handshake. "The heroes have kept Wild Tiger out of my courtroom for murder once before. I trust you all to do it again."

"I understand, Your Honor," Ivan accepted the handshake—much stronger this time, stronger than Ivan expected, and his hands were surprisingly warm, dry—and left the office.

Yuri turned to the window and gently parted two slats in the blinds, overlooking the city. He had a lot of thinking to do before he helped the heroes any more.


	5. Escort

Antonio stared into the depths of a mug of black coffee, brewed and burned through the night as the heroes at Kotetsu's condo heated and re-heated it to keep themselves awake. Most of the last twelve hours felt like a terrible dream, just too surreal to believe. Kotetsu, out to kill his partner, for no other reason than someone used a NEXT power on him? The longer Antonio thought about it, the more terrifying that power seemed.

Earlier that evening, when Antonio arrived home, Kotetsu immediately went to the kitchen and flung open all the cabinets, pulling out cooking pans, bowls, and ingredients for—what else?—fried rice. While the first pot of coffee brewed, Kotetsu told Antonio to help himself to a late dinner, his grudge apparently forgotten for now.

"Just make sure it's nothing I'm cooking, because it'll probably kill you," Kotetsu advised. "Anything else is fair game."

Antonio suddenly lost his appetite. "...I think I'll just stick to coffee."

It was like watching an episode of Iron Chef, if the secret ingredient was poison. Kotetsu stormed through his house and gathered up his dishwasher detergent, laundry detergents, glass cleaner sprays, insecticides, and a grimy bottle of hand sanitizer, lining them up on the table and peering the micro-print warning labels.

"Let's see, this one only warns against contact with the eyes. That's no good. The ant killer says not to let pets near it, but what about people? Ah! Here we go, seek medical attention immediately if swallowed!" Kotetsu plucked the bottle of drain cleaner out of the lineup and set it on the counter, right next to the carrots, peas, and rice.

Antonio looked away from the sinister display of domesticity, when a framed picture—Kotetsu and Tomoe's wedding photo—caught his eye. Staring at it for a second, Antonio prayed a little, _Forgive him, Tomoe. I know this looks bad, but it's not his fault. We're going to fix it._

The coffee finished, and Kotetsu poured two mugs, offering one to his friend with a wide smile. Taking it, Antonio amended his prayer, _Somehow._

Halfway through Kotetsu's first pan of fried rice, Keith, changed back into civilian clothes, showed up to spell Antonio: he'd make sure Kotetsu didn't burn down the house or leave to hunt Barnaby while the older man slept. Antonio thanked the Wind Wizard, and spread out on Kotetsu's couch for a few hours of dark, dreamless sleep.

Keith woke him at eight in the morning, looking a lot worse for wear himself, and announced to Antonio that Kotetsu had tired himself out in the middle of his third batch. Keith helped him to bed, turned off all the cooking appliances, and kept watch through the night, but he wasn't sure how to dispose of toxic fried rice. Antonio said he'd do it, and offered Keith the couch, though he declined. Nathan was going to pick him up as soon as he got Ivan's intel from the Justice Department. Nathan and Keith were both part of Team One: Find Bellisair. Antonio was unofficial captain of Team Two: Keep Tiger away from Barnaby. Ivan would be his backup once he got done with the Jusice Department, and eventually the rest of the girl's team, Pao Lin and Karina. Team Three: Keep Barnaby away from Tiger, was currently their Apollon allies, Agnes and Saito, putting Barnaby through some unscheduled busy work out of the office in case Kotetsu went snooping around. A pretty solid plan, for the time being.

"Just don't over-do it," Antonio warned. "You've had even less sleep than me."

"Don't worry," Keith said, lacking the energy to repeat himself. "I'll have a nap in Mr. Fire's car."

Appeased, Antonio shook himself, stretched, and crossed to the kitchen to assess Kotetsu's creations. He had three pans filled with his attempts at fried rice—the first one was absolutely black, burned beyond recognition; the second cooked well, but the chemicals had turned rice a sickly shade of green; the third and presumably unfinished creation looked mostly normal, but smelled like a dead cat. _So much for a delicious home-cooked lunch._ No way would Barnaby touch a single bite, even if Kotetsu begged on his knees.

Finding a box of gallon-sized plastic bags, Antonio wrote on the front in permanent marker: BIOHAZARD, and started filling the bags with the contaminated food. In addition to the three failed dishes of fried rice, Kotetsu had a slew of cereal bowls filled with his attempts to brew better poisons, pellets and powder drowned in florescent liquids, half-dissolved and half-congealed in disgusting clumps. Antonio threw the bowls out with those concoctions, too, just to be safe. He'd replace them later if Kotetsu missed them that badly. Besides, how often did a single guy living alone use a dish set with service for eight people?

Nathan arrived to pick up Keith while Antonio re-read the warning labels for disposal instructions. With all parties busy or tired or both, they waved hasty goodbyes before moving on. Deciding that he could throw the poisoned rice out with the normal garbage, Antonio took the biohazard bags to the dumpster outside and tossed them in, before returning to Kotetsu's house and making the call to his boss, Terry, that there was a hero-related emergency. They had two lies to spin: saying that the partners had to be separated and omitting the part about murder, or mentioning the murder but omitting the fact that _Kotetsu_ was the one who wanted to commit it. Antonio chose the second option, and explained that the heroes, as a mandate from Hero TV, had begun a massive undercover investigation after someone sent Barnaby a very serious death threat. He'd use his vacation time to miss work if that's what it took, but he just couldn't come in to the office. Oh, and he gave out his Rock Bison business card in response to a car accident last night, be prepared for the phone calls.

Terry was displeased—something _always_ displeased Terry, and it didn't help that Antonio currently ranked last—but he accepted Antonio's excuse and excused him for the day. Which brought him to the present: staring at a mug of last night's disgusting, reheated coffee. He should have asked Nathan to bring fresh coffee when he picked up Keith… but that might mean owing him another favor, which did not bode well for Antonio's ass.

He wanted badly to go back to sleep, but he couldn't risk leaving Kotetsu unattended, and staring at a coffee cup let his mind wander, so Antonio flicked the TV on to some mild morning program where the anchors talked about fluffy news like small-time art galleries and little tidbits learned from scientific studies, like people who spend thirty minutes a day stretching can expect to live five years longer than their non-stretching counterparts. Antonio knew very few people so concerned about those five years they would make a point to stretch thirty minutes a day, while at the same time, all the people he _did_ know who stretched thirty minutes a day worked in such a high-risk environment that life expectancy really didn't count for much. But, the words and pictures were a nice distraction, and Antonio just stared at it, practically asleep with his eyes open.

A few hours later, Antonio heard a first non-televised noise from somewhere upstairs. _Kotetsu's awake._ Antonio listened as hard as he could for any signs of trouble, but the footsteps upstairs seemed astoundingly normal. Kotetsu padded around the bedroom, turned on the shower, let the water run for a while, shut it off, continued walking around his bedroom, and then finally emerged, dressed in his usual shirt, vest, tie, and slacks.

At the top of the stairs, Kotetsu took one step down and suddenly noticed Antonio's presence. He stopped short—Tiger stared at Bison. Bison stared at Tiger.

"…_Shit_!" Kotetsu barreled down the stairs and into the kitchen. "My lunch for Bunny! Why the hell didn't you wake me up?"

"It's okay," Antonio told him. "I called Apollon. Told them you're sick."

"Like hell I'm sick! I just overslept! I gotta finish my Objective today!"

"What, do you have a time limit?"

"As soon as possible! I slacked off yesterday because Fire Emblem told me I should poison him… Dammit, I should just use a knife, knives are so much easier…"

"Why not a gun?"

"I don't have a gun license. It's against the law."

Antonio slapped a hand to his forehead. _You're absolutely cool about how you're going to commit murder, but breaking the law to use a gun is wrong?_

"Hey, Antonio, did you clean the kitchen?"

"Yeah?"

"But I wanted to see if the cleaning stuff looked any better in the morning!"

"Trust me, it didn't."

"But the bleach and mold spray looked a lot like soy sauce…"

"It didn't smell like soy sauce. Wouldn't fool anyone."

"Hm," Kotetsu scratched at his beard. "But then how will I kill Bunny?"

"You… you can still poison him," Antonio suggested, struggling to keep his voice even. "You can buy a box lunch, and then add poison to it. It's got less of a chance of looking or smelling bad. And—and I'll buy you breakfast."

"Really? Awesome!" Kotetsu grabbed a few bottles of cleaning solution. "I'm starving, and I think I cooked all my food trying to poison Bunny…"

"Face it. You're a terrible cook."

"Am not! I make a mean fried rice!"

"What else can you cook? It might have been easier to poison something else if you just new another dish."

Kotetsu blinked at Antonio, pouted a little, and looked down, apparently trying to count how many recipes he could cook.

"Um… beef fried rice?"

"That's fried rice."

"…Pork… fried rice?"

"Still rice," Antonio said. "C'mon, before I change my mind about buying."

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

* * *

><p>The little family diner that Antonio picked had a special for infinite pancakes, so he ordered that for Kotetsu with a bottle of mayo and let his friend go wild. In the meantime, Antonio had eggs, bacon, and sausage, a thousand times more appetizing than Kotetsu's fried rice monstrosities, and the two talked very normally, about a lot of the same stuff they discussed when out drinking together: work, sports, friends.<p>

But, he couldn't quite fully relax. While Kotetsu munched mayo-drenched pancakes, Antonio kept checking his phone. No news from Nathan and Keith, but they were in a seedy side of town, and contacting them might put them in a sticky situation. The other girls couldn't respond for much more mundane reasons: schoolwork. He managed to send a quick note to Agnes asking if it was safe for Kotetsu to go to Apollon. She confirmed that Saito had taken Barnaby far, far away, and he could keep him out until eight in the evening, maybe later. At least that was settled. He also got a reassuring text from Ivan, saying, _I'm tailing you_. If anything went wrong, he'd have another hero by his side, but for now, he had to let Ivan do what he did best: stay in the background.

Eventually, Kotetsu got tired of pancakes with strawberries, syrup, and mayonnaise, but Antonio was satisfied that he bought another hour of time for the other heroes and a little bit of normality for himself.

"So where should I get Bunny's lunch?" Kotetsu chased a stray berry around his plate with his fork.

_Don't play with your food when you're talking about killing people._ "You can get one of those convenience store meals."

"Nah, Bunny hates that kind of stuff," Kotetsu frowned. "He says it tastes like the packaging."

"But wouldn't that help you? He won't notice the taste if you add drain cleaner."

"I guess… I dunno, that's still not something he'd _like_..." Kotetsu stared wistfully out the window. He looked way too much like the lovestruck teenager wondering if it was okay to hold Tomoe's hand on the second date.

"How about this," Antonio swallowed hard. Anything to make Kotetsu stop looking like that. "Get him takeout from a restaurant you know he likes. That way you know he wants to eat it, and you can use something easier to disguise, like the glass cleaner."

"Perfect!" Kotetsu stood up and headed for the door, knowing Antonio had promised to pick up the bill. "There's a place near Apollon that Bunny likes. I'll get him food there!"

Once Antonio paid and drove over to Apollon, Kotetsu ordered a sort of beef-cabbage stew thing from a nearby restaurant, carrying out a white styrofoam container. He opened it up in the back of Antonio's car and spritzed it with glass cleaner, the semi-colorless liquid blending in perfectly with the sauce. Kotetsu added two more sprays for good measure—the color and the smell of the dish remained virtually unchanged.

"Tada!" Kotetsu held it up for Antonio to see. "Nathan had the right idea about poison after all!"

Antonio gulped. If anything could make a person paranoid about where his food came from, it had to be watching his best friend cheerfully prepare a poisoned lunch.

Kotetsu shut the lid and, with a permanent marker, scrawled "_FOR BUNNY_" across the top in block letters, so that no one else would steal it. Antonio hoped with all his heart it wouldn't get that far. They left the car outside Apollon and climbed the ridiculous amount of stairs up to the lobby; Kotetsu swiped into the office with his employee ID, and Antonio used his limited pass, which basically only let him access the Hero Gym, but he wondered who would question him as Kotetsu dragged him along on his way too gleeful warpath.

"Okay, so it's kind of close to lunch," Kotetsu rambled, clutching Barnaby's precious lunch with both hands. "Bunny should eat this soon. I kind of want to be there to make sure he eats it, y'know? And it'd be our last time hanging out, because he'll die after."

"Kotetsu, don't talk about… _that_ while there are people around."

"What do you mean?"

"The… Objective. Don't talk about it."

"Why? I'm only supposed to not tell Bunny."

"If anyone else hears, they could warn him," Antonio explained.

"Oh! Oh, okay, I got it. No more talking about… _that_." Kotetsu raised his eyebrows and grinned at Antonio, as if murdering Barnaby was their special high-school secret. Antonio clapped a hand on his forehead in exasperation for the second time that day, and followed Kotetsu through Apollon's maze of offices until he found his and Barnaby's cubicles.

"Hello, Ms. Carter!" He announced his arrival.

The woman at the desk opposite the double-desk glared at him. "So you've finally decided to show up?"

"Yep! And I brought lunch for Bunny!" Kotetsu wiggled the styrofoam takeout box at her. "Do you know where he is?"

"It's a little early for lunch," Ms. Carter frowned.

"Well, a little, but I want to make sure Bunny eats the lunch I brought for him!"

Antonio looked away. _Kotetsu, stop talking like you're Barnaby's wife._

Kotetsu craned his neck around the office, looking for some sign of his partner. "Is he here? Did he already go to the Hero Monthly interview?"

"No, Agnes sent him down to engineering."

"Eh? Why?"

"Saito wanted to see him. He's been gone for a few hours, and I don't think he's coming back anytime soon."

"You're kidding!" Kotetsu exclaimed. "Hold on, _you_ stay here, I'm going to go look for him."

"I should come with—" Antonio stated, but Kotetsu held up a hand.

"You're not allowed in engineering. It's where Doc Saito has all his gizmo-thingies, he's really protective of them. I promise, I'll be right back as soon as I find Bunny."

Kotetsu left, still clutching the styrofoam box, and Antonio sighed. He trusted that Barnaby wouldn't be there for Kotetsu to find... but where could they have hidden Kotetsu's partner?


	6. Misdirection

A/N: On the Anon Meme, I formatted all of Saito's bracketed dialogue to be approximately a third of the size of the normal text. FFdotNet does not accept that formatting, so I recommend you copy-paste the text into another document and adjust the size for maximum effect.

* * *

><p>"ALL RIGHT, COME UP!"<p>

Barnaby kicked and broke the surface of the water, gasping. Even with perfectly good air filtered through his suit beneath the waves, spending so much time underwater created an illusion of breathlessness. He lifted one arm and tapped his head, the scuba-diving gesture for "above-water okay."

"GOOD, I SEE YOU. NOW COME BACK TO THE BOAT."

Barnaby swam back toward the Apollon ship as quickly as his hundred-pound battle suit would allow. The head engineer had packed all of his specialized computers, sensors, and instruments onto Apollon's aquatic transport, and then sailed him and Barnaby out to a remote area of the bay where they could barely see the shore. Saito's big experiment involved Barnaby spending long amounts of time underwater, testing the suit's ability to withstand water pressure, filter breathable air out of the water, and balance the various gasses necessary for prolonged diving.

Barnaby himself had absolutely nothing to do during these tests. He was there as the guinea pig, the man to wear the suit as Saito gathered data. Even Barnaby, who constantly espoused dedication to all elements of his job as a hero, from charging into burning buildings to spending hours upon end at photo shoots, longed to be anywhere else than in the middle of a giant expanse of water with no one around for miles, staring into a dark blankness that rendered his suit-corrected vision irrelevant. Blind, deaf to everything but Saito's occasional and grating commands, numb in all his limbs from floating underwater for so long…

He reached the ladder on the side of the boat and pulled himself up, removing his helmet and setting it in a special rinse bin. Everything smelled of brine and seaweed. The bay rocked the boat uncomfortably, and even without feeling seasick, the movement wreaked havoc on Barnaby's sense of equilibrium. His hair ordinarily resisted compression from his helmet, but it couldn't stand the pressure in combination with salty ocean air—even without a mirror, he knew it was tangling itself into a rats' nest—and he felt his lips and skin drying by the second, sapped of moisture.

_Agnes __could__ have_ warned_ me that Saito had tests like this in mind..._

Saito emerged from the cabin, carrying a small, limp towel. Barnaby had no idea what part of his body it was meant to dry. An eyedropper could drench the thing in seconds.

"[Well? How are you holding up?]" Saito whispered, no longer amplified by the communications system.

"Well enough," Barnaby lied. _Never show weakness._ He took the towel from Saito and draped it over his head, at a loss for where else to put it, but no so ungrateful as to deny it.

"[I'm glad to hear that. I have a few more tests I want to complete.]"

"Are they similar to the previous tests?"

"[More or less identical. It's unwise to change too many variables in scientific experiments. Otherwise it's impossible to determine causation.]"

Barnaby's stomach dropped, and then the ocean kicked it around a bit. "So… how much longer are we going to be out here?"

"[As long as it takes. It's so rare that I get full days to run tests with you, I can't waste a single moment.]"

"But Dr. Saito, I really don't understand the significance of these tests," Barnaby said. "What more can you learn by putting me underwater again?"

Saito stared at Barnaby as if he had just suggested that he could have built a better hero suit in a cave with a box of scraps than Saito ever could with his Apollon labs and budget.

"[Tell me, Barnaby,]" Saito began. "[Have you heard of the Pegasus Project?]"

"An independent research company trying to reverse-engineer Sky High's jetpack?"

"[Exactly. Now, do you know what _happened_ to the Pegasus Project?]"

"I have not heard."

"[It hasn't been released to the public, and I doubt it ever will. I only know because a friend of mine was the lead researcher's associate deputy lieutenant. The Pegasus Project had taken every detail into consideration: fuel output, device placement, piloting—]"

"Excuse me, Dr. Saito—"

"[_—I'm not done explaining,_ piloting controls, alloy strengths, aerodynamic shape, energy readouts, environmental impact, social impact, psychological impact, and neurological impact. They ran test after test so that when they sent a non-NEXT pilot into the air, they knew he would return to the earth safely. Their pilot was a man named Eugene Gulia, a very promising young man studying aerodynamics, while at the same time captain of the university's swimming team. The Pegasus project held high hopes for that young man, as did his family, and his girlfriend, Julia, an aspiring Mrs. Julia Gulia.]"

"Julia Gulia?" Barnaby frowned. "That's a rather unfortunate married name."

"[I agree. Either way, the Pegasus Project hoped to revolutionize everything, from our attitudes toward flight to the transportation industry in general. Personalized flight engines have an endless number of applications outside of the hero industry, and the Pegasus project set forth to make the dreams of all the ordinary men aspiring for flight a reality. I must admit that I would have also liked to have my own jetpack. I had to make do for years developing the booster jump on your suit, because I didn't have the time or funding to launch my own project. That's why the Pegasus Project was such an inspiration for me, because I thought they could make my dream a reality. I wrote so many emails back and forth with my friend on the Project. I wanted to know every single detail, every development that occurred each day. It felt almost like I was part of the project as well, even though the principles involved frequently strayed from my areas of expertise. Most of my developments for the hero suits are either in application of industrial alloys or programming, such as your hero interfaces and the specialized Hundred Power countdown clock, both in your on-screen display and on your wrists, in your communicator bands. My friend dealt with much grander matters on a daily basis, the aforementioned fuel output, device placement, piloting controls, alloy strengths, aerodynamic shape, energy readouts, environmental impact, social impact, psychological impact, and neurological impact of these experimental jetpacks. But, even though I was frequently out of my depth, I enjoyed my correspondence with my friend, learning about the ins and outs of the personal flight industry before it was even created.]"

"Is there a point to this story, Dr. Saito?"

"[There is! Why would I possibly decide to tell you such a long and detailed story if it has no point? You asked why I wanted you to undergo such extensive testing, and I'm about to tell you!]" Saito pouted at Barnaby, who nodded apologetically and motioned for him to continue.

"[As I was saying, the Pegasus Project had been testing many elements of personal flight, but they were facing pressure from investors, who wanted to see their capital turned into flight immediately. The researchers resisted at every turn, running small-scale tests again and again and again until they could conclusively prove their hypotheses correct. This is actually an element of the project that I had a significant input in. Sky High's jetpack is a trade secret of Poseidon Line transportation, but I've seen enough of its functions and features to know that it is an _extremely_ sophisticated piece of equipment, possibly even more so than your and Tiger's suits. I've tried inviting the head of Poseidon's engineering department out for drinks several times, hoping he'll tell me its secrets, but he's turned me down every time. I just _know_ that jetpack is holding more secrets than he's letting on! Its functions are fascinating, and it must be extremely automated, since its operator is a cloudy-headed clod. I understand that Sky High's ability to manipulate air currents is critical in its operations, but there's no way to tell to what degree his natural influence over air movement is supplemented by the functions of that fascinating jetpack. Anyway, the investors failed to attempt to make this distinction between the abilities of the jetpack and the abilities of its pilot, and pressured the Project to begin large-scale testing before all of the variables had been properly accounted for.]"

"What happened?"

"[Only the most spectacular and catastrophic _explosion_ to ever happen in a testing environment! Eugene Gulia exploded into a catalogued twelve thousand, two hundred sixty-four pieces before he even had the chance to leave the ground. All those prototypes, destroyed! A young man's life, taken! A young Mrs. Julia Gulia, preemptively widowed! It shook my soul to hear of such carnage, and there's been a great cover-up to conceal Eugene Gulia's death, not just for the sake of the Pegasus Project, but for the future of aircraft in general. With time, I came to understand the decision in this particular instance, but I am still attentively watching the remnants of the Project to ensure that the Gulias are all compensated generously for their loss, and that Eugene Gulia is given proper recognition as a martyr in the name of science, even if the details of his death cannot be confirmed or denied. The lesson remains that _all_ scientific experiments, no matter how pointless they appear to be, must be thoroughly tested for the sake and safety of everyone involved, from the test subjects to the researchers.]" Saito took a breath. "[I understand how frustrated you are with this testing, Barnaby, but this tragedy weighs heavily on my mind, especially since I work with such spectacular individuals as heroes, like you and Tiger. As head of the engineering department and responsible for the maintenance of your hero suits, I take this example to heart. My battle suits must protect you against every mundane danger, so that you don't have to worry about stepping on a rusty nail in a burning building and becoming infected with tetanus as you go to rescue civilians and should be worrying about falling debris. And it is also my job to prepare for every potential danger, even the ones that have not occurred, and have little chance of occurring. You and Tiger did very well on an early mission when you responded to a fire at an oil rig, and we have to thank Blue Rose for a swift and elegant rescue from collapsing debris, but what if you had fallen into the ocean? How long would you be able to breathe? For how long will the suit protect you from ocean pressures? When will the bends set in?]"

"The bends? Dr. Saito, are you trying to give me decompression sickness?"

"[I'm not trying to hurt you, Barnaby, but I can extrapolate your susceptibility to diving hazards like decompression sickness and nitrogen narcosis by having you spend very long amounts of time submerged just beneath the visible surface of the water where no one can see you.]"

"And why did we have to go so far away from shore?"

"[My sensors are delicate, and I don't want to be interrupted.]"

Barnaby frowned a little, won over by the engineer's logic. "I suppose you're right, Dr. Saito. I'm sorry for causing such trouble."

"[No, I understand. Your part of the experiment sucks a lot. _I_ wouldn't choose to do it.]"

"…Thank you so much for your sympathy." Barnaby looked back at the invisible Sternbild shore. Anyone standing there wouldn't even be able to see the boat. "Dr. Saito, may I ask if there's a way to broadcast music through our suits? It'd be much more interesting if I could listen to music at the same time."

"[Ah, sorry, I never thought to include something like that. But I'll be sure to add it to your next set of routine upgrades.]"

_Unbelievable._ Barnaby breathed a sigh. _The most advanced suit of battle armor in existence, and it's not compatible with MP3 players._

Saito left Barnaby to fetch a water bottle for him, while Barnaby retrieved his helmet from the rinse bin, shook the excess drops of water off, and put it back on, sending a call to Kotetsu's hero bracelet. The little 'call' graphic spun, ringing, but eventually rang itself out and announced 'no answer.' Barnaby frowned. This had to be a very serious illness if Kotetsu wouldn't even answer his call band. Agnes wasn't kidding when she said Kotetsu couldn't come in to work that day. All he could do was hope the old man was all right without him.

When Saito returned, Barnaby gratefully accepted the water bottle and drank about half of it, washing the sea salt off his tongue, but the young hero soon found himself back in the bay, floating heavily, staring at nothing, hearing nothing, and beyond all limits of human comprehension _bored_.

On the deck, Saito spread out his lounge chair again and retrieved an ice cream bar from the bridge's mini-fridge. He knew full well Tiger and Barnaby's suits could withstand the pressure of this depth, combat diving diseases, and filter air properly for well over twenty-four hours. And he knew that Barnaby's suit _could_ play music—the problem was that Saito would also be forced to listen to whatever Barnaby played through his helmet, and judging by Barnaby's interviews for Monthly Hero and other celebrity-stalking magazines, he'd pick opera music. No way was Saito going to spend hours upon hours listening to Barnaby's shitty opera music.

Agnes had given him simple instructions: keep Barnaby away from Tiger for as long as you can. Even without being given a reason why this was such a pressing task, Saito had to pat himself on the back for such an ingenious solution. The veteran hero had absolutely no way of finding Barnaby if he was at sea. For one, naval records are restricted. Two, even if he did get out here, Saito could disguise the evidence carefully enough to convince him that Barnaby wasn't with him, with Barnaby himself in the water and all his personal effects in a below-decks locker. Three, there were so many more places to search for Barnaby on shore. Tiger could spend weeks, months, exhausting all the hiding places there before he decided to go to sea. A brilliant idea, if Saito did say so himself.

Saito affixed a set of sunglasses lenses to his usual eyewear, sat back in the chair, and licked his ice cream with a contented sigh. He had the best job in the whole world.


	7. Pressure

Nathan understood how others viewed him in his difference capacities. As a CEO, as a NEXT, as a hero, as a man with tastes and preferences frowned up on by most of society, Nathan knew that in certain roles, people expected him to act a certain way, and those expectations must not be contradicted.

He had a bit of wiggle room in places. For starters, in his role as CEO, he held the fate of many people he interacted with on a daily basis pinched between his manicured fingers. He could fire anyone he disliked; one wrong word, one misplaced look, and he could destroy lives. But then he'd be a tyrant, using his power just to remind everyone of his tyranny. And that was no way to run a company. So Nathan toned back the voice, the gestures, the strut, but still dressed beyond the nines with makeup, just to keep people on their toes. They expected a rational and effective businessman with eccentric tastes, so that's what they got.

Then, as Fire Emblem, Nathan could go all-out, chase tail and play, in a way the CEO Nathan Seymour could not, but he had to pass up dozens of arrests and rescues simply by having a power incompatible with the situation, something that would do more harm than good. So, Fire Emblem suffered in the lower ranks, by some standards a less competent man than Mr. Seymour. But that's what people expected from Fire Emblem. They expected a character too strange to be real, a larger-than-life superhero who never hurt others, and if he wanted to get away with hitting on his fellow heroes—and hitting hard—he had to maintain expectations.

And here, as his dark, self-styled Shadowmobile inched along the grimy streets of Sternbild's industrial slums, the people outside will have a whole different set of expectations for a man in a feather boa and electric pink lipstick. They expected a sissy and a pushover. Nathan had to obliterate all those expectations before anyone around here would give him the time of day. In spite of all outward appearances, he had to be the tyrant—ruthlessly assertive, sinisterly fabulous. The homophobe's nightmare. A part of him felt guilty playing stereotype, and such a negative one at that. But with Handsome's life and Tiger's name on the line, Nathan didn't care who he had to scare.

He just regretted that poor, innocent Keith had to witness him, but not even a hero should walk these docks and warehouses alone.

Tires crunched over gravel as Nathan eased the car along at low speed, scanning for one of the addresses Ivan provided for them. One of the warehouse foremen around here, Nelson Ludd, had been connected to one of Bellisair's crimes, suspected but not convicted, and the Justice Department's organized crime division recognized this area as under Bellisair's influence. Now all they had to do was root out the monster himself and make him fix Kotetsu.

Nathan picked a place to park his car. It rolled to a stop by the broad side of a corrugated steel barn. He reached over and shook Keith's shoulder gently.

"Sky Hi~igh…" Nathan sing-songed, just the way Keith would expect. "We're here, honey."

Keith stirred and tried to stretch, his feet and hands hitting the underside of the dashboard and the roof respectively with a loud _thud_. "Sorry, Mr. Fire," he mumbled pre-emptively, in case he had damaged something.

"It's just a car. Not even one I like," Nathan flipped down the driver's side blinder and opened the mirror, checking his makeup. He could stand to paint a little heavier—absolutely tacky, but he had a performance to give. He retrieved his emergency makeup kit and set about touching up: brighter blush, until it looked like paint. Thicker mascara, though it clumped. Darker shadows, until his cheeks looked hollowed. Like Ludd could tell the difference between a classy transvestite and a drag queen.

"Mr. Fire, are you all right?" Keith asked, picking up on Nathan's unease.

"It's been a rough night," Nathan said. "And no one likes picking through garbage."

He swiped his lips with another coat of lipstick. It stuck together and left an unsightly smudge on his teeth. Nathan knew better to ask Keith how he looked, too. He'd no doubt call Nathan pretty, similarly unable to tell the difference between cross-dressing and drag, but infinitely more sympathetic. Nathan set aside the makeup and turned off the ignition, though he didn't quite leave the car yet.

"Sky High," Nathan said. "We're about to talk to some people who aren't used to others being nice to them. Kindness will unnerve them, make them not want to talk to us, and we can't afford to lose these leads."

"What do you mean?"

"I need you to not smile. Don't frown, either, but definitely don't smile. I'll talk," Nathan removed the keys and spun them around his pinkie. "And just to let you know, no matter what I do out there, I'm still me. Okay?"

"Absolutely!" Keith beamed. "Mr. Fire is Mr. Fire!"

Nathan smiled. Agnes was right; his dim-wittedness could be charming at times. "All right then. Let's go~…"

He and Keith stepped out of the car, and Nathan made a point to lock and check all the doors before proceeding to the warehouse Ivan had designated. They were miles away from the area where Jake had set up camp, but the place had the same feel: _Beware, for here be psychopaths._

The door to the warehouse gaped open, prepared for shipments to enter and leave, so Nathan and Keith walk right in and find the office, stuck near the ceiling and only accessible by a two-flight set of iron stairs. The heroes climbed them single-file, and Nathan knocked on the door.

"Come in," a gruff voice called.

Nathan entered with a wide, hip-swinging strut, instantly catching Ludd's horrified attention. Ludd was a beefy man, a day laborer promoted to management through seniority and obedience, dressed for work down on the docks though he spent his days at a desk. Not only that, but he _gaped_ at Nathan with unabashed terror and revulsion—the perfect kind of coward who would talk just to make Nathan leave him alone.

"Good _morning_~!" Nathan intentionally pitched his voice as low as he could, a gravelly, masculine rumble clashing with the feminine inflection. Ludd twitched. "Are you Nelson Ludd?"

"Who's asking?" Ludd sat back in his chair.

"Me, silly~!" Nathan rested his hands against the foreman's desk, fluttering his eyelashes. "The name's _Nathan._ That's _Keith._"

Ludd looked to Keith, and Nathan did, too, just to check on his companion. Keith had set his face with a look of extreme disapproval—not judgment or anger, but the sort of expression that made the onlooker squirm and wonder what they could have possibly done wrong. _Excellent, Sky High._

"We have some questions for you…" Nathan trailed one finger along the desk, still keeping his voice low.

"I don't have time for this. I've got a business to run. You and your boyfriend gotta leave, now."

Nathan laughed. "Oh, Keith's not my _boyfriend_…" Nathan leaned a little closer to Ludd. "Let's just say _he's_ not my type."

Ludd swallowed, a visible sheen of sweat breaking on his forehead. "Leave before I call Security."

"You're a feisty one," Nathan crooned. "That's what Keith's here for. If you call Security, he'll have to go take care of them, leave the two of us _all alone~_…" Ludd suppressed a whimper. "He might not look it, but Keith eats the likes of your 'Security' for breakfast. And I might not look it, but _I_ eat men like _you_ for breakfast."

Glancing between Keith and Nathan, Ludd took a deep breath. "What the hell do you want?"

"Bellisair."

"What?"

"Everything you can give me on Luthor Bellisair. The man himself would be just _wonderful_."

"Bellisair? You want Bellisair?" Ludd laughed dryly. "You can forget it. No one crosses Bellisair."

"Why not?"

"He's a NEXT. Can make anyone do anything. It's better to keep your head down and do what he says before he _forces_ you to do something a lot worse."

"For example~?"

"He had his gang in here once," Ludd began, still sweating. "Planning a kidnapping. A little girl. One of the guys didn't want to use a kid, started whining about it and talking back. So Bellisair looked him dead in the eye and told him to bring the girl here. And four hours later, the guy was back with the little girl over his shoulder. Dropped her at Bellisair's feet, and two seconds later, broke down crying. Bellisair said to bring him the girl, and he did, no more whining, but once it was over…" Ludd shivered. "_Then_ the guy did time for the kidnapping, too. He was so careless, let everyone see his face, told the parents point blank he was kidnapping their daughter. And Bellisair walked free."

"I see~…" Nathan drawled, but Ludd hadn't given them any new information they hadn't already deduced from the Justice Department files. "So how does Bellisair's power work, hm? I think you've seen him use it, if he likes to hang around your lovely warehouse."

Ludd shook his head. "All I know is he looks you in the eye. He says 'objective,' and then he tells you to do something. When it's done, the guy goes 'objective complete,' and all hell breaks loose."

Nathan pondered this for a second. _We'll probably be safe wearing mirrored glasses. If Bellisair can't get direct eye contact, then he can't give any of us Objectives._

"Is that what you wanted? Are we done?"

"Mm~m, I wonder," Nathan set his elbows down on the desk, leaning close to Ludd's face. "Are you _sure_ you can't tell us where Bellisair is hiding?"

"I'm sure! I'm sure!"

"Pretty please~?"

"No way! I don't want him coming after me!" Ludd insisted.

"What if _I_ came after you~?"

"_No!_" Ludd slid his office chair back as far as the wall behind him would allow. "Get away from me, freak!"

_You have to do better than 'freak.'_ Nathan thought. "But you're so full of secrets~. You'd be so much less… _attractive_ if your head wasn't full of those pretty little secrets."

"I'm not selling out Bellisair!" Ludd declared. "If he finds out, he'll turn on me! He'll make me do his dirty work and land me in jail for the rest of my life!"

Knowing when to fold, Nathan pulled back. "How _boring_," he pouted. "All right. We'll be leaving now. See you later, cutie~!"

As soon as Nathan left the office, he pulled a handkerchief from the inside pocket of his jacket and started dabbing off his excessive makeup, lips especially. The glue-like sensation gradually wiped away.

"You are very good at interrogation, Mr. Fire," Keith observed as they descended the stairs.

"It's about putting on the heat," Nathan replied. "Thanks for being such good backup, Sky High."

"You're welcome."

They reached the ground floor yet again and left the warehouse behind. As they walked, Nathan noticed Keith staring at the ground.

"What's wrong?" Nathan asked.

"Bellisair is a terrible man," Keith said. "He… reminds me of Maverick."

Nathan frowned at the mention of Apollon's ex-CEO. "Bellisair's small fry compared to Maverick," he decided. While Maverick had all of Sternbild under his thumb, Bellisair was scratching and spitting with lowlife gang leaders over individual city blocks and illegal wealth. But even Nathan had to admit, judging by his own residual double-memories of chasing Wild Tiger like a murderer while treating an android like a trusted colleague, any NEXT with the power to manipulate someone's mind presented a threat.

The two returned to the car, which the thugs and criminals hanging around had thankfully left alone. Nathan unlocked it and slid inside, instructing Keith to inform the others of what they had learned.

_Little by little, we'll find Bellisair's weakness, and we'll save our friends._ Nathan glanced at his pinkie. _I promised that, as a hero._


	8. Elude

"Hey, have you seen Barnaby? Are you sure? Thanks anyway!"

Kotetsu explored the halls of Apollon Media, searching every nook and cranny for his partner, asking everyone who passed, all the while aware of the meal growing ever colder in its styrofoam container. He poked his head in all the labs in the engineering department, asking the occupants if they had seen Barnaby. A few techies had, hours ago, and didn't know where he or Saito had gone or when they were expected back, so they sent Kotetsu on. Noon rolled around, and Kotetsu still hadn't found his partner, so he moved on to other likely areas: the gym, the break room, some conference rooms, Lloyds' office—with Lloyds in it, who questioned Kotetsu's extreme tardiness, which was awkward—and even the bathrooms on each of the floors he visited.

Frustration mounted. He felt edgy and restless, like he had a little worm burrowing at the base of his skull, constantly reminding him _**kill Bunny, kill Bunny, kill Bunny,**_ but as long as he kept moving, the itch stayed manageable. Breakfast with Antonio, while delicious, had been unbearable, talking about those normal things while his Objective waited for him, ever present, impatiently chanting: _**Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny****.**_**_ Kill Bunny._**

Kotetsu had already hit the 'up' button for the elevator when he suddenly remembered another time when the itch had tormented him for his laziness. Last night, after Antonio clonked him out and he woke up to find all the heroes together, interrogating him about the Objective, that had been maddening to sit through, all those people asking him to talk about his Objective and not letting him go _do_ it. Talk was cheap! Much better to act, and kill Barnaby. As for why they would spend so much time talking to Kotetsu...

_They're just slowing me down... Maybe even on purpose __**kill Bunny!**_ Kotetsu realized. Why would they do that? Well, maybe they felt a bit alarmed about Kotetsu's Objective. Kotetsu had a notion that killing Barnaby would mean not getting to hang out with him anymore, but the reality of it felt distant and cloudy, nothing more than an eventuality, like Kaede's wedding day. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it: first and foremost, kill Barnaby, and then figure out what to do after. No point worrying about it now.

Suddenly, Kotetsu made a decision, reached out and pressed the 'down' button, just as a carriage headed 'up' arrived. A few people in the elevator stared at him expectantly, but he just wiggled his fingers and stood back. The door slid shut again, and Kotetsu tapped his foot against the floor, waiting for the 'down' elevator.

Soon enough, Kotetsu found himself in the Apollon lobby, tossing Barnaby's special poisoned lunch in a trash can and swiping out of the building. Walking helped clear his head a little, so he could work on a new way to kill Barnaby. His friends probably didn't mean to get in his way, they just didn't share his Objective, and kept getting distracted: either thinking too much about consequences, sticking with routine and going to work, or being whiny little babies who care about stuff like eating and sleeping. He'd have all the time in the world for eating and sleeping once he killed Barnaby. Well, and then arrested Bellisair, and then kicked Antonio's ass, and then explained why Objectives were so important, and _then_ got his call bracelet back. He had a feeling he had other things planned after that, too, but frankly the post-Objective list was just getting too long to remember.

_**Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny.**_

_I'm working on it._

Kotetsu walked to the nearest monorail station, plotted his course toward the residential areas of the Gold Stage, and caught a train. This plan involved a lot of waiting, which did not make the itch any happier, but following the other heroes' suggestions had been even more useless. Best not to let them worry about him anymore, he could complete his Objective all on his own. Besides, if just anyone could do it, why would it be _his_ special Objective?

The train passed a billboard for Hero TV, featuring Blue Rose. Suddenly Kotetsu had both "Go NEXT" and _**kill Bunny**_ stuck in his head. They didn't match at all, and a noisy headache started to build between his eyes. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Kotetsu struggled to push the song out, but it was just too freaking catchy!

He got off a few stops later. Though he hadn't decided the battle between the ear-worm pop song and Objective, physical motion helped calm the persistent tickle in his brain, so he walked along to the beat of the song in his head until he reached Barnaby's apartment building. He had visited often enough that the lobby guard recognized and waved at him, before he reached the inner doors and typed in Barnaby's security code. The door opened obligingly, and slid behind him.

After another quick-yet-impatient elevator ride, Kotetsu opened the door to Barnaby's apartment with another code and flicked the lights on. _He still doesn't have any furniture __**kill Bunny**_, Kotetsu smirked as he stepped inside, scanning the apartment for any sign of his partner, just in case he had already come home. As expected, the place was deserted, so Kotetsu found the sound system and turned it on. One of Barnaby's favorite operas played through the fancy surround-sound, eradicating Blue Rose's catchy pop song and strangely accentuating the Objective's mantra.

Kotetsu sat down in the single recliner, until he remembered that his Objective really, really hated useless sitting, so he stood up and paced in circles around the room, trying to decide if there was anything else he could do to forward his Objective. Barnaby would come home eventually—rather than going to Barnaby, Kotetsu could wait for Barnaby to come to him. One problem solved.

As for how to kill Barnaby… Kotetsu froze as he passed the door to the kitchen.

Kitchen. The kitchen had more than food, it had things that could prepare the food. Namely, knives, like Kotetsu had been thinking of all along. Kotetsu entered the kitchen, looking around the smooth marble countertops and shimmery touch-screen appliances, until he found the knife block, like a silver pot with a bunch of handles sticking out the top. Kotetsu pulled one out—a fruit knife. It glinted sharply, but seemed a bit… short. Kotetsu tried another. The cleaver? Kind of chunky. The bread knife? The serrated edge seemed hard to deal with.

But then Kotetsu found it—the carving knife, a long, easily ten-inch, sharp blade with a tapered tip, perfect for stabbing and slashing. Kotetsu whisked it through the air a few times, enjoying the _swish, swish_ sound. Yes, this would be _perfect_ for killing Barnaby! No matter where Kotetsu attacked, through the heart, between the ribs, across the throat, this knife would hold true.

Though it suddenly occurred to Kotetsu, the knife may look sharp, but how did he know it _was_ sharp? Well, he had an easy way to test. Kotetsu set the knife down on the counter and opened Barnaby's fridge, pulling out a head of cabbage, and then a wooden cutting board from a lower cabinet. Setting the vegetable down, Kotetsu lifted the knife high and swung it down.

The cabbage head split clean in half, little droplets of moisture spraying in all directions. The edge of the blade stuck into the wooden cutting board, and it took a little effort to remove it. Blade gleaming with water, Kotetsu twisted it about his hand, admiring the flash of light on wet steel. He set up one half of the cabbage for another cut—swing, split, spray. Then again, for more swing, split, spray, swing, split, spray.

_This is… kind of fun __**kill Bunny**_! Kotetsu repeated the action again and again until he had a mound of finely shredded cabbage on the cutting board. Realizing he had run out of cabbage to cut, Kotetsu found a bowl and slid the shards of leaf into it, setting it aside, and then looking around for something else to cut.

Barnaby had some apples. Diced. Bananas. Sliced. Onions. Minced. A bell pepper. Chopped. Some carrots. Whittled down into feeble toothpicks and a pile of shavings. When the produce ran out, Kotetsu found a loaf of bread that he cut into itty-bitty croutons, a stick of butter that he cubed along the tablespoon-lines, then into half-, quarter-, eighth-, and sixteenth-tablespoon bits, a chicken breast that he trimmed all the fat off of and then cut to ribbons, and a box of soft oatmeal cookie cream sandwiches, which Kotetsu painstakingly removed from their individually wrapped packages and then cut like teeny pizza pies into as many little triangle-slices as he could.

Pretty soon, Kotetsu had cut all the food in the house. Literally anything that could be divided into more pieces with the blade of a knife had been cut. A lot of it, Kotetsu had filled into bowls, cups, pots, pans, glasses, but he had run out of dishes before he ran out of food, so he stuffed as much of the decimated food as he could into plastic baggies. It sat out on the expansive counters, covering almost the whole space except for Kotetsu's well-used cutting board.

Kotetsu pouted as he realized the fun was officially over. _Now what am I supposed to do __**kill Bunny**__?_ Taking the knife with him, Kotetsu returned to the main living room, swishing the blade through the air. Barnaby should just hurry up and get home. Kotetsu got this Objective almost a whole day ago, it should be done by now. How could he be expected to get on with his life unless he killed Barnaby?

The opera that Kotetsu had left on finished one disk, and automatically shifted to another. As big, dramatic chords bellowed through the speakers, Kotetsu made do _pretending_ to cut things, slashing at the air in an improvised dance roughly corresponding to the grand orchestra.

* * *

><p>"<em>I still don't understand,<em>" Antonio's boss, Terry, said. "_Why would you tell a woman to contact _us_ when she had an accident involving an Apollon employee?_"

"Look, it's a long story," Antonio pinched the bridge of his nose, elbow leaning on Kotetsu's desk as he tried to explain his involvement in the situation to Terry. "The other driver… wasn't really thinking about insurance. I just wanted to make sure that woman got help. The accident wasn't her fault."

"_Bison, we are a food company. It's not our job to file other companies' insurance claims._"

"But it's my job as a hero to help people! To improve the company image, right?" Antonio amended. "Like the Believe in Heroes campaign, doing good even when there's no crime. The random acts of kindness will reflect well on Kronos."

"_You have to wait for Marketing's call before you start trying to brand yourself as the Good Samaritan hero,_" Terry snapped. "_P__ut more effort into making your points reflect your 'heroic spirit' if you've got time to run around and chase ambulances. That's what lawyers are for."_

Antonio bit back his argument—he _wasn't_ looking for trouble, the trouble had landed right in his lap, and a car crash was small fry compared with the larger disaster looming—but for the sake of getting his boss off the phone, Antonio said, "I understand. Sorry for causing trouble."

"_And get this death threat scare worked out fast! You're doing so much work for Apollon, I'm beginning to think you've forgotten who pays your salary._"

With that, Terry hung up, and Antonio held his head in his hands. Days like this, he wished he didn't have a boss at all, and he could just be a hero the way _he_ wanted to, no matter what the sponsors wanted him to do. But before he could dwell too long on his dreams of free and easy hero-ing, Antonio's call bracelet started to ring. He lifted his wrist and tapped to answer, revealing Ivan's very distraught face.

"Origami?"

"_Bison-san! I have terrible news!_"

"Say it."

"_Tiger-san left Apollon!_" Ivan announced, hyperventilating slightly. "_I followed him, and I didn't call because I thought I could monitor him, and he took a train to a residential building, in the Gold Stage! I think he might be in Barnaby-san's apartment!_"

"Wait, so that means—"

"_If Barnaby-san goes home, then Tiger-san will kill him! None of the rest of us can get in, because we don't know his codes, and even as heroes, we'd need a warrant to enter! I was just too focused on tailing him, I didn't think that I—_"

"Calm down," Antonio told Ivan, running a hand through his hair. "Can Petrov get us a warrant?"

"_I can ask, but it might be too late!_" Ivan cried. "_What are we going to do, Bison-san?_"

Antonio glanced at the clock. Almost mid-afternoon… "Get Fire Emblem and Sky High to the Apollon lobby. I'll get the girls. We need an emergency meeting."


	9. Indignation

"I'm so, so sorry, everyone," Ivan apologized again to the collected heroes standing in a loose circle in a corner of the Apollon building's lobby. "I thought I could handle it myself. I didn't realize where he was going until it was too late, and then I panicked... This is all my fault!"

"It's okay!" Keith clapped Ivan on the shoulder. "You did your best, and that's all we can ask for!"

"But now what are we going to do?" Karina asked. "If Barnaby goes home, he's dead."

"Can we chase Tiger out before that?" Pao Lin asked.

"We can't get past security," Ivan frowned, still wracked with self-blame.

"Oh, come now, this isn't so bad," Nathan said.

"Are you kidding? Tiger's in the perfect spot to ambush Barnaby!"

"Yes, but we have time on our side," Nathan rested one hand against his chin. "Apollon's engineer said he could keep Handsome at sea until eight or nine in the evening at least, and he could buy us up to another hour after that with some fake docking troubles. Then Handsome has to go back to Apollon to change out of his armor and collect his things before he can go home. We don't need to worry about this until after ten tonight."

"So what, we're just going to sit and do nothing?" Karina snapped.

Nathan wiggled three fingers at her. "We have three teams. It just so happens that Team Two and Team Three are at a bit stuck at the moment. So that means you all can join Sky High and me on Team One and search for Bellisair until Handsome gets back on shore."

Everyone stared at Nathan, wrestling with their perceived uselessness.

"C'mon, everyone, don't be such silly gooses~," Nathan encouraged. "Handsome's safe. Tiger's distracted. And then closer to sundown, we'll decide who is most needed where."

"Makes sense," Antonio grunted.

"Doesn't it~?" Nathan glomped Antonio appreciatively, though Antonio did not seem to appreciate the gesture the way Nathan wanted him to.

"Okay!" Keith saluted. "We are all now on _Team One!_"

He stuck his hand into the center of their circle, looking expectantly at the others. One by one, the other heroes added their hands to the pile.

"One, two, three—" Keith counted off "Go Team One!"

"Go Team!" the other heroes echoed, and the cheer finished with an undignified shriek as Nathan pinched Antonio's ass.

"Dammit, _stop doing that_!"

"But I just love making you scream~!"

* * *

><p>Barnaby couldn't take it anymore. Nearly twelve hours at sea, at least ten of those spent underwater in mind-numbing isolation, everything smelling of salt and fish, his own mouth <em>tasting<em> like salt and fish, muscles pinched and cramped from spending so long in his battle suit… Today sucked. Barnaby could think of no other term less vulgar to adequately describe his irritation, fatigue, and chagrin. Everything _sucked_.

When Saito declared—relatively speaking—that he finally had all the data he desired, Barnaby wanted to cry from joy, and then wring the engineer's neck for putting him through such a watery hell. But then he'd had no one to steer the boat back ashore, so Barnaby decided to let Saito live, camping out in one the depressingly dank and crustacean-scented cabins below decks to nurse his emotional wounds, lying on an inch-thick foam cot.

After an unspecified amount of travel, Barnaby felt the engines shut down, but then Saito knocked at the door. He begrudgingly roused himself to answer it, and the scientist explained that they were not yet allowed to disembark.

"[There's a few irregularities in our craft registration. Please wait down here while I talk to the coast guard.]"

Though Barnaby again felt the urge to do something unspeakable to the small-voiced man, he reined in his anger and let Saito go, curling up on the cot and staring at the opposite wall without his glasses. Nothing today had gone the way he wanted, after such a promising and hopeful start. And he would never admit it to another living soul, but Barnaby wanted a hug. Preferably from Kotetsu. Kotetsu gave good hugs, overwhelmingly friendly and warm and strong, the kind of hugs that made at least _something_ better. But if Barnaby ever asked for such a favor, Kotetsu would never let him live it down. Besides, Kotetsu had an ultra-contagious disease right now. It'd be a few days before he'd be prepared to hug anyone without the risk of spreading illness. He felt scant comfort knowing Kotetsu's day had probably been worse than his, lying in bed and too sick to even answer his call band.

Barnaby dozed a little, too uncomfortable to actually sleep, but before he knew it, Saito returned and said Barnaby was allowed to go ashore… and then go straight into the transport van, where he removed his battle suit and waited, again, as Saito drove. Barnaby couldn't see out of the van to assess traffic, but the drive back to Apollon seemed much longer than the drive down to the docks, and full of many more turns.

It was nearly half past ten when Barnaby finally left Apollon, dragging his custom leather boots, sore and exhausted. Nothing for it but an early bedtime and a fresh start the next morning, with some lowered expectations. He pulled out of the parking garage and started back for his apartment, dreaming of a hot bath, a delivery dinner he didn't have to cook, and a long cuddle-session the pink rabbit plushie until he finally fell asleep.

Four exits until his apartment. Three exits. Two.

His call band suddenly rang with an incoming call. Barnaby tapped his wrist and answered, "Hello?"

"_Haaaaaandsoooooome~_!"

Barnaby winced. An audio-only call, but for some reason, the caller seemed to be attempting to make up for his lack of visuals by multiplying his volume. "Fire Emblem?"

"_Haaaandsome, I need youuu~!_"

"Why do you need me?"

"_Sweetcheeks is such a cold-hearted—cold-hear…hear… Pig!_" Nathan rambled indistinctly. "_I called him and I called him and I called him and he won't_ answer _meeeee…_"

"Excuse me, Fire Emblem, but are you drunk?"

"_Of course! And Sweetcheeks won't come and save me! So I called a _real _hero! Someone who doesn't leave damsels in distress... _in distress_!_"

He passed yet another exit: the next one would take Barnaby home. But Nathan needed a designated driver, and from the sound of it, he needed one badly. Even as close colleagues, Barnaby and Nathan didn't have the sort of relationship that included drunk dialing each other and begging for a ride, but Barnaby could assume that if Nathan was calling him, he had already exhausted all other options. Including 'Sweetcheeks,' who Barnaby deduced was Antonio.

"_Oh, pleeeeeease, Handsome, don't leave me all by myself! Save me, Barnaby Brooks Jr! Save me, save meeeeeeeee~!_"

Barnaby sighed. Heart heavy with regret, he passed the exit that would bring him home and continued driving on. "All right. I understand. Where are you?"

Nathan slurred out an address, and Barnaby promised he'd be there shortly. Though it meant putting his plans for a cozy evening on hold, Barnaby might enjoy learning the story of Nathan's misery, just to know that there was someone in the world who endured greater sufferings on this one day which had all the hallmarks of perfection.

* * *

><p>Nathan himself waited outside The Favorite Flame, dabbing some strong spirits onto his neck and jacket and gargling with it, so that once Barnaby arrived, he would smell the part of a drunk. All he needed now was to convince Barnaby to stay the night at his humble abode, or else he'd die. No pressure.<p>

The Mega-Team One from that afternoon had been astoundingly productive, scouting out all of the prospective headquarters from the Justice Department files. But, even as they gained more intel on where Belliair worked and how he used his NEXT, they were no closer to where Bellisair hid. Nathan hypothesized, and the others agreed with him, that Kotetsu's Objective was the first phase of a much grander plan, and he'd be lying low until he finished it. Barnaby was still a generally beloved hero, even in the Second League, but most everyone that he made an enemy of was now behind bars, and Bellisair didn't seem to directly gain anything from having Barnaby assassinated. Nathan doubted a connection to Ouroboros, but the option couldn't be discounted—they seemed the most likely organization to try and go after Barnaby, ever since his spectacular battle against Jake.

But, ten in the evening rolled around, and the heroes realized they would need to split back into three teams: Team One, Ivan and Keith, still hunting Bellisair. Ivan seemed particularly determined to be part of this team, as if to make up for his earlier failure. Team Two, Antonio, Karina, and Pao Lin, collaborating to root Kotetsu out of Barnaby's apartment. Which left Nathan as a one-man team, Team Three, keeping Barnaby from going home at all costs.

A pair of headlights cut through the evening shade, and Nathan slumped back against the wall, feigning intoxication. When the car turned out to be a familiar red sedan, Nathan 'roused himself' and stumbled over, intentionally rolling one ankle in his high heels.

"Haaandsome~!" He slurred, flinging his arms around Barnaby's neck when he emerged from the car. "You caaaaaame~! I _knew_ you were the nicest, bestest… most… _oh_! You'd never leave a woman alone and helpless, would you~?"

Nathan pulled back and examined Barnaby. First off, his hair looked like a rat's nest, his curls deflated and tangled together. He reeked of day-old sushi, and reaching up to pat Barnaby's cheek, his skin felt flaky, absolutely sapped of moisture. And the _glare,_ the merciless glare in those pretty green eyes, the thousand-yard stare of a tortured soul…

"Oh, Handsome," Nathan wanted to express some sort of sympathy; he hadn't expected Dr. Saito's 'distraction' to be quite so taxing on the young hero, but saying anything would contradict his act as a drunk. So he settled for repeating, "Oh, Handsome… Handsome…"

"It occurred to me, Fire Emblem, during my detour," Barnaby began, his tone scathing. "You could have easily hailed a _taxi_ to take you home."

Oh. Right. Nathan slammed into Barnaby again in a falsely inebriated hug, mind blazing to come up with the best excuse. "Haaandsome, I couldn't! I just couldn't! I... I don't want to be _alone_ tonight~!"

"You're at a bar full of people. And I this place advertises male hosts."

Nathan looked back at The Favorite Flame. It did have hosts—hand-picked by Nathan, a collection of mind-bogglingly sexy young men—but Barnaby didn't know Nathan's ulterior motive for calling him out here. Namely, saving his life.

"_Paying_for love! How crass!" Nathan smacked Barnaby on the shoulder, a glancing blow. "You see—I had a date tonight! And he stood me up! Can you believe it?"

"Yes."

Genuinely scandalized this time, Nathan gasped and covered his heart with one hand. "You're even crueler than Sweetcheeks!" he cried. "Handsome, please come home with me! I can't stand to be alone, not tonight of all nights!"

"Firstly, I refuse to sleep with you, under any circumstances," Barnaby deadpanned. "But secondly, why is tonight any different than any other night?"

"Because… It's my birthday~!"

"It's not."

"What?"

"It's not your birthday," Barnaby called his lie instantly. "Your birthday was two months ago. We ate red velvet cake and Kotetsu and Antonio got in a drinking contest based on juvenile exploits, which Kotetsu lost. _You_ then convinced him to wear a pair of tiger-print underwear and crawl around on the floor, roaring at things, at which point I took him home."

"Oh yeah…" Nathan smiled at the fond memory. Kotetsu had quite the body that no one ever thought to properly display. Could he be blamed for correcting that error?

"Considering you are so drunk that you have forgotten the date of your birthday, I will take you home," Barnaby adjusted his glasses. "But I _refuse_ to stay the night. I have had a very unpleasant day, and I'm going _home_."

"You can't!" Nathan grabbed Barnaby's wrist. "You can't go home!"

"And why not?"

"Because… Because…" With his other hand, Nathan gestured to himself. "It _is_ my birthday!"

"I just told you, it isn't."

"That was my ordinary, _boring_ birthday," Nathan explained. "But _today_ is the day of my magnificent rebirth!"

"Rebirth." Barnaby stared at him.

"Yes, yes~!" Nathan flung out one arm. "The day that I burned away the boring self I was before, and emerged from the ashes as a glorious, flame-wreathed phoenix, the Nathan Seymour adored and admired by all!"

To sell such a lucid speech, Nathan grabbed Barnaby by the shoulders and pulled him down, mashing the blonde's face against his chest in a drunken 'motherly hug.' "And there is no way I will spend the day of my rebirth without _someone_ by my fabulous side!"

"Get _off_ of me!" Barnaby escaped a few seconds later, decidedly angrier.

"Please, Handsome?" Nathan dropped the volume, a quiet and much kinder plea, hands still resting on Barnaby's shoulders. "I don't want you to sleep with me. I don't even need you to sleep in the same room. I just want someone there with me, someone I trust. I'll handle dinner, I'll put the best bed in the house in a room that locks from the inside, and I'll let you use my spa bathroom for as long as you like. If I remember correctly, you told some magazine or another that you like to use aromatherapy to relax. I've never used it myself, but I have a some bath salts and scented soaps..."

Nathan saw the slightest tremble in the younger man's lips. _He's tempted._

"I promise, Handsome, you'll be taking a spa retreat and doing a favor for a friend at the same time! And if there's anything else I can do for you, all you have to do is ask!"

Barnaby eyed Nathan suspiciously. "…Will you promise not grab my butt?"

"I promise!" Nathan held up his left hand with his right hand over his heart. "A night free of groping, if you stay with me!"

After another minute, Barnaby pulled out his keys. "Get in," he said.

"Oh, Handsome, you're the greatest~!" Nathan flung himself on Barnaby one more time, his last splurge of physical contact before forswearing it all together, but the blonde hero quickly detangled him and pushed him into the passenger side of his car.

"Do you have permission to leave your car here?" Barnaby asked.

"Sure, sure, sure!" Nathan waved his concern away. "I'm just so glad you agreed, _Haaaaaaaaaaaandsoooooooooome_~!"

And that was no lie. Barnaby had no idea how glad he was Barnaby agreed, how much the young hero's life depended on not going home. He watched as Barnaby circled the car and slid into the driver's seat, secretly clapping his hands together in a one-man high-five. _Great job, Team Three._


	10. Inversion

Across the street from one of the most exclusive residential buildings in the Gold Stage, three suspicious characters, one older man and two young girls wearing mirrored sunglasses late at night, stood with the sort of feigned casualness that only came from being up to no good.

"Do you know what floor he lives on?" the older girl asked.

"No," the younger one replied.

"Are you serious?"

"I don't remember the floor or room," the younger girl added apologetically.

The older girl whipped her glasses off to better berate her comrades. "We don't even know what floor he's on? We don't even have _that_ to go from?"

"Blue Rose, put your glasses back on!" the younger girl insisted.

"What for?" she asked, folding the glasses' arms. "Why would Bellisair be up here?"

"It's for safety! We couldn't handle it if he gave you an Objective, too! Maybe it'd be something worse than Tiger's!"

"What's worse than murder?"

"More murder," the man rumbled. "What if Tiger's Objective was 'kill the heroes' instead of just 'kill Barnaby?'"

The older girl froze, then slowly unfolded her glasses and, without another word, slid them back onto her face.

"So what's our plan?" Pao Lin turned her head towards her teammates.

"Can we ask the security guards to page him? We have these glasses for our identities, so we could even tell them we're heroes," Karina suggested.

"They don't have a reason to believe us. And we'd have to ask for Barnaby, who isn't there. Tiger wouldn't answer to that. We need to make him come out," Antonio re-folded his arms.

"Pull the fire alarm," Pao Lin said. "That'll make everyone evacuate."

"I like that idea," Karina said. "Then we can look for him at the emergency exits. But can we get to the fire alarm?"

"I'll check," Antonio said, leaving his teammates and crossing the street to Barnaby's building.

Suddenly aware that they were alone, together, the two girls started to fidget. Karina leaned against a wall and examined her nails. Pao Lin scuffed her shoes along the sidewalk.

"Um… Blue Rose?" Pao Lin broke the silence after a few minutes.

"Hm?"

"Your glasses look nice."

"Come on, Dragon Kid, don't tease me," Karina adjusted her mirrored sunglasses. "These frames don't fit my face at all."

"No, I think they look good!"

"I would have found better ones if we had more time. These will just have to do." Karina turned to Pao Lin and smiled a bit. "If anyone lucked out, you did. Those frames help age your face."

"Huh?" Pao Lin grabbed at the sunglasses, though she didn't remove them. "They make me look old?"

"Not old, more mature. Like a grown-up. Now if you just grow a few inches, you'll be a real beauty!"

"Y-You think so?"

Karina laughed. "Definitely! I'll have to watch out for you. You'll steal my arrests and my fans!"

"I don't want your fans! They're creepy!"

The laughter ended when Antonio returned. Even without seeing his eyes, the deep frown predicted bad news.

"The lobby fire alarm is behind the security desk," Antonio said. "I looked the rest of it over, it's all to code. Any fire in the lobby would be visible from the desk. I think they built it that way to keep people like us from causing a scene."

"I see," Karina said. "So we can't make the building evacuate?"

"No… It just means we can't _pull_ the fire alarm."

The other two looked to Pao Lin. "What are you talking about?"

"The fire alarm has to be on an electrical system somewhere. If we can get into a utilities closet, I could try to fry it and make the alarm go off."

"Good idea, Kid," Antonio said. "We'll go around the back, find the service entrance, get Tiger out of there."

The girls nodded in affirmative, and the three suspicious characters crossed the street and took a back alley to the side of Barnaby's apartment.

* * *

><p>They found a single door, a steel, unlabeled, handle-less door that Karina found absolutely suspect in every way. The three of them agreed it was their best bet, but to get in, Antonio would have to break it down. They debated the pros and cons of leaving no trace, until Pao Lin announced the door was locked magnetically.<p>

"Magnetically? What does that have to do with anything?" Karina asked.

A blue aura ignited around the young Kung fu master, and sparks crackled from her fingertips. "It means electricity."

Pao Lin placed her hands on one side of the doorframe, gently easing more and less current through her fingertips. Karina watched in awe as, suddenly, the door popped open, repelled by the electric charge in its own lock.

"Nice one, Dragon Kid," Antonio ruffled her hair, leaving it standing on end like a porcupine. Karina giggled a little, but Pao Lin just combed her fingers through her hair, pulling out the static electricity and then zapping the door with it for good measure.

The three slipped inside the apartment building, and Antonio activated his own power—a self-contained ability that had no chance of accidentally shocking or freezing anyone—providing an eerie glow to illuminate the space. From a tiny landing, a stairwell dipped down, just a few steps, until they found themselves in a low-ceilinged basement filled with large steel boilers and pipelines studded with solid-looking valves and wheels.

"Is this the utilities room?" Pao Lin looked around.

"I think it's just the water," Antonio said.

"Oh," Pao Lin said, a little disappointed. "But where's the electricity? I didn't see any other doors."

"I think we can make this work," Karina said, taking a few steps closer to the pipes. She felt the water running inside of them, a little tickle just beyond her reach, like the sensation of being watched.

"Huh?"

"You got an idea, Blue Rose?" Antonio asked.

"I think so," Karina said. "I need you and Dragon Kid to be absolutely silent."

"Okay," Pao Lin agreed tentatively. Karina flashed her an appreciative smile before sitting down at the base of one likely pipe, closing her eyes, and focusing on the tickle just beneath the metal.

When Karina was a little girl and a new ice NEXT, she sometimes had accidents exploding the plumbing in her house. Her powers would activate, and the nearest water would instantly freeze: sometimes harmlessly, like a glass of water on the table, but other times, Karina froze the kitchen faucet, or the shower head, and twice, the 600-gallon water heater buried in the yard. Better than any chemistry lesson, Karina learned _very_ quickly that water expanded when it froze, and if it froze fast enough, it had the power to burst through just about anything. She quickly learned how to control the ability, if not for the sake of her parents' repair bill blues, then for he sake of her water-damaged belongings. But to this day, she still liked to meditate through the pipes, sensing the water behind the walls and under the floorboards and letting it carry away her stress.

Now, Karina had her fingers against the building's pulse, following the water through its veins, exploring the twists and turns of the piping system and building a mental map of where it flowed. From the bottom of the building up, this pipe followed a very regular pattern, spreading out identically among the units with thin, strong pipes. It didn't feel like ordinary plumbing—the ends of the pipes had high-pressure blocks, seals prepared to burst off at any moment, not like the ends of bath or kitchen plumbing, or a sewage system.

_The sprinklers._ Karina realized. _This will be just as good as pulling the fire alarm._

Karina quickly identified each individual sprinkler head, easily hundreds throughout the entire building, and with a pulse of power, _froze_.

* * *

><p>"Gaaaaagh!" Kotetsu tumbled around the giant, empty expanse of Barnaby's apartment floor, still clutching his chosen knife. "Dammit, Bunny, hurry up and <em>get home<em>!"

He was so freaking bored! He wanted to run and jump and scream and punch something and pull his hair out and run through a wall and cry and do a hundred cartwheels and climb a building and cut up more stuff and lift a train over his head and throw this chair out that window and tear the whole building apart and _**kill Bunny!**_ He had been sitting here—and lying here, and squirming here, and rolling here—for _hours_ and Barnaby still hadn't shown up! He got so bored he even ate all the half-mashed slices of oatmeal cream cookie sandwich, the entire box, and the sugar rush pulsed through his body like liquid cactus needles on fire.

"SOMETHING HAPPEN ALREADY!" he screamed.

And something did—freezing cold water burst from the ceiling, torrential rain drenching everything in sight. Kotetsu shouted in surprised and threw his hands over his head, but the water soaked him to the bone in seconds. He squinted through the water at the source—the sprinkler system. Did that mean the building was on fire? Shouldn't the fire alarm have gone off first?

Then Kotetsu heard people from the units above and below him scream, and decided that fire or no fire, everyone needed to evacuate. But as he stood in the doorway, he looked back at Barnaby's apartment one last time. His partner had so few possessions. Kotetsu knew he only kept the things that were truly precious to him, things that would crush him if they were lost.

_Just a second __**kill Bunny**__..._ He stepped back inside.

* * *

><p>The three heroes outside watched the stream of soaked residents as they evacuated the building, lots of people ready for bed, a few people still in their day clothes, and one poor couple dressed only in soaked, hastily-grabbed bath towels. Karina tried her best not to look in their direction. How was she supposed to know what she might have been interrupting? She could only see the water in the pipes, not the people in the rooms.<p>

"Do you guys see Tiger?" Pao Lin jumped, trying to see over the heads of the people in the crowd.

"Not yet," Antonio reported. The sunglasses really impaired his vision, but he couldn't remove them.

The throngs grew larger, and the heroes shoved their way closer to the exit, searching for the man with the cat-shaped beard.

"I see him!" Antonio reported. "He's limping!"

Karina's heart stopped. Had she injured Kotetsu when she broke the pipes? Was it her fault that he was in pain? _Oh, Tiger, I never meant to hurt you!_

The crowd shifted, and Karina got a clear view of Kotetsu… carrying a small girl in a nightgown with a slightly bloody skirt. He set her down and patted her head, and an elderly woman next to Kotetsu smiled and shook his hand. Kotetsu tried to wave her attention away, 'It was nothing' on his lips. The little girl took the old woman's hand and left as Kotetsu walked the other direction, absolutely limp-free, though still sopping wet, like everyone else in the crowd.

"Tiger!" Karina called out to him, and he turned to look in her direction.

"Blue Rose?" he frowned. "What are you doing here?"

"That's not important!" Karina grabbed Pao Lin's hand and dragged her toward the bearded hero. Antonio cleared his own path behind them.

"You guys, why are you wearing sunglasses at night?" He pointed to the shades. "I might not always know what's cool, but those look stupid."

"That's not important either!" Karina cried. "Tiger, who was that girl? Why was she bleeding?"

"Oh, they live two floors below Bunny. Mrs. Betty, and her granddaughter Ellen. Ellen tripped and scraped her knee somewhere around floor sixty-two, so I carried her down."

Karina looked after the girl and grandmother. _Always the hero, Tiger._

"They're really nice people," Kotetsu continued. "And I even saved this!"

He held up a small toy, a pill-shaped body with stick-like arms and legs and big yellow eyes.

"That's Barnaby's!" Pao Lin recognized the little robot.

"Yeah, I wasn't sure just how waterproof this little guy was," Kotetsu explained, turning it about in his hands. "I know Bunny let Sam play with it when we were babysitting, but the water was really strong. Bunny'd be crushed if it got destroyed."

"That's nice of you," Antonio said, a little sarcastically.

"Isn't it?" Kotetsu failed to pick up on his friend's cynicism. "So I can call Bunny, tell him I've got his toy, and then I can kill him!"

Out of nowhere, Kotetsu produced a long, sharp knife. It flashed in the lowlight, and the heroes jumped back, except for Pao Lin, who jumped forward. She placed both her hands on Kotetsu's chest and shocked him, sparks arcing across his chest. He cried aloud, spasmed with electric charge, and after a second, collapsed, both the knife and toy falling out of his hands, steaming slightly as the water evaporated off of his electrified body.

"Dragon Kid!" Karina exclaimed.

People turned to look, attracted by the flash of lightning, the scream, the mention of a hero's name, or a combination of the three, but Antonio scooped up Kotetsu and threw him over his shoulder for the second time in two nights, calling some excuse about fainting to the crowd. They parted and let him pass, a few people offering to call an ambulance, though Antonio waved them away. Karina gathered up the knife and toy robot and followed him, Pao Lin trailing behind, ashamed and chewing on her thumb.

"Sorry," she squeaked. "I saw the knife, and I got scared! It was a reflex!"

"It's fine," Antonio reassured her. "If the other civilians saw the knife, they'd panic. You stopped this from turning into a riot."

Pao Lin smiled a little, and they navigated their way out of the crowd and to a shadowed awning. Antonio set Kotetsu down and the three heroes breathed a sigh of relief.

"So what are we going to do now?" Karina asked. Antonio gestured for her to give him the knife.

"We've got to get Tiger home," Antonio said, taking the knife and glowing blue, before repeatedly slashing it against his impenetrable skin. Unable to cut him, the blade quickly blunted into a harmless metal stick. "We can't watch him twenty-four seven, and our companies won't understand if we lose any more time. If we tell them the truth, it might get back to Barnaby. We need a place we can keep Tiger that he can't escape."

"Like a prison cell?" Karina asked. "But how do you lock up a guy who can make himself a hundred times stronger and faster and ten billion other things?"

"I thought you'd know. You're a dominatrix."

"I'm not! I only play one for Hero TV!" Karina insisted. "But no matter what we do, he'll just break out!"

"We have to try," Antonio said. "It doesn't have to hold him forever, just keep him from going into work the next day." He turned to Pao Lin. "How long will he be out for?"

"It was only meant to be an hour or two, but I forgot about the water…" Pao Lin admitted. "So probably all night."

Antonio nodded, then picked up Kotetsu again and started walking away. "Come on, Team Two! We've got until dawn to build a Tiger trap."

The two girls trotted after him, Karina carrying the useless knife as Pao Lin examined the toy robot for signs of damage, water or electrical, when it occurred to her.

"Hey, guys, if we weren't heroes, we'd make a pretty awesome gang of thieves," she said, wiggling the robot at her companions, who both rolled their eyes, though she couldn't tell behind the sunglasses.


	11. Negotiation

Ivan stared at his face in the little round mirror, comparing it to the reference picture. Even in the shadows of the alley, his pale face, dark eyes, and black hair matched Bellisair's perfectly. He adjusted his necktie, smoothed the lapels of his suit jacket, and focused on his breathing. He had to make up for his earlier failure, letting Kotetsu into Barnaby's apartment, causing trouble for the others. At least he knew he could fix it, and make this right. If he captured Bellisair, then they had a chance at fixing Kotetsu, and ending this whole ordeal before it got even further out of hand.

The Mega-Team One from that afternoon had covered a lot of ground, scouting out all sorts of stereotypical bad-guy lairs—warehouses, bars, and back rooms of stores—and all the testimonials they gathered confirmed Bellisair's NEXT ability: direct eye contact, state "Objective," and deliver a command. They learned that Bellisair favored short, terse commands, things that can be described in a few words, and his most frequent punishment for members of his own organization was turning them into his pawns, giving them Objectives that benefitted his goals and then abandoning them to get arrested and face prison.

That thought occupied Ivan's brain when they were crafting the new teams. Ivan wanted to catch Bellisair because he knew they were missing something: if they couldn't find Bellisair at any of his 'places of business,' then he must be at a safe house, somewhere he only goes when he's threatened and needs to wait for a storm to pass. His methods frequently involved using the police to punish his underlings, so he had to have a system in place to keep himself out of the line of fire. And the only people who would know that system of escape routes are members of Bellisair's inner circle, the higher-ranked criminals who knew how to hide from the law. And at the time, Ivan had half of a plan to root them out and find Bellisair's true location.

Keith—in costume as Sky High—approached, and placed one hand on Ivan's shoulder. "Are you ready?" he asked, voice echoing slightly in his helmet.

Ivan said, "Yeah." Still staring in the mirror, his normal voice paired with this villainous face sent shivers down his spine. That was the Achilles' heel in this plan: Ivan had no reference for Bellisair's voice, and couldn't imitate it. Ivan was betting everything on his perfect imitation of Bellisair's face and body, and leaving the rest up to terror. The accounts of Bellisair's power indicated that everyone he worked with feared it; all he'd have to do is look people in the eye, and they would probably follow protocol without being told. Probably.

Keith nodded, and took the mirror and reference picture from Ivan. "I will wait for thirty minutes. If you need me before that, signal with your call band."

"Thanks," Ivan said, swallowing and brushing his shoulders again. Under this disguise, Ivan at least had his Origami Cyclone suit, armed to the teeth with throwing stars and shurikens, and under that again, the hastily purchased mirrored sunglasses. He should be fine if the thugs turned on him, or if the real Bellisair arrived. Honestly, Ivan wished Bellisair would show up, so Ivan could take him down for what he did to his friend.

"Origami…" Keith's epaulettes shifted a little. "Be safe."

Suddenly reminded of his astoundingly similar role in Jake's attack on Sternbild, Ivan looked away and shuffled his feet. "I will."

With that, Keith took to the skies, rapidly gaining altitude and rocketing away, putting distance between himself and the eventual crime scene. Ivan walked out into the street with the confident strut of someone accustomed to being obeyed. He walked two blocks, ironing out the wrinkles in his stride, and entered a seedy hole-in-the-wall bar. There were two patrons, both too drunk to care who Ivan was or was not, but the bartender recognized him instantly.

"Mr. Bellisair!" he exclaimed. "I—I didn't expect—ah—How are you tonight, sir?"

Ivan glared at him, pointedly seeking to look him straight in the eyes. The man immediately looked at the floor and opened the door to the back of the bar for him. Ivan walked past him and into a small hallway, not stopping until the bartender called out again, "Sir?" He turned and realized the man had pressed a button on the wall to call an elevator, but Ivan just stared at him some more and the error went uncommented on.

"Clemente and Lagner are in," the bartender reported as the doors slid shut.

At a bit of a loss, Ivan scanned over the available buttons—one through ten, with a button for roof. Making an arbitrary guess that evil people liked top floors, Ivan pressed the button for ten and let the elevator carry him up. Just stay bold, stay eye-contact-y, hurry up and make up an excuse for if the tenth floor turns out to not be the evil lair…

The door opened into a little hallway with chipped plaster and a foul-smelling carpet. Wrinkling his nose a little, Ivan found the nearest door and knocked forcefully on it. It had a fisheye lens, which Ivan engaged in a very tense staring contest. After a minute, he heard a flurry of locks and chains unlatching behind the door, and it flung open. A middle-aged man with gel-spiked hair and a bad fake tan stood in the entryway.

"Boss!" he said, but Ivan pushed past him into the room before he could say anything else. The apartment they occupied was as dank and ill-maintained as the hallway outside, sparsely furnished with an old abused sofa and a table, a large safe in the corner, and everywhere else, trash: old take-out boxes, emptied bags of potato chips, aluminum cans for soda and beer. Another man on the couch roused himself, a younger, but more portly man with flames tattooed around his wrists and up his arms. _This is Clemente and Lagner,_ Ivan thought, though he couldn't tell which was which.

"Boss, we didn't know you were coming!" the flame-tattooed one stood and ineffectively smoothed out some wrinkles in his clothes with his hands.

Ivan kicked at an empty beer bottle and then looked the flame-tattoo man dead in the eye with an expression like, _Well?_ Instantly he and his companion set about cleaning up the apartment, tossing the garbage into an already overflowing trash can. They struggled to crunch it down for a bit, until giving up and finding a new bag, periodically glancing over their shoulders for Ivan's approval.

_I need to keep them occupied._ Ivan thought, walking over toward a dingy window. _Then Sky High-san will come back and attack, and then they'll take me to Bellisair's hideout. We'll either find him there, or know where to stake out and wait for him._

"I… I don't mean to sound rude, Boss, but you said you wouldn't be coming back until the news reported Brooks dead," the badly tanned man spoke up.

Ivan turned to look at him over his shoulder, widening his eyes in displeasure.

"B-But we weren't being lazy!" the man insisted.

"No, no, we were really busy!" his colleague added. "We bagged another two thousand Stern from this block, and Jeahoe came through with his drug shipment. We can get that on the streets tonight, if you want!"

"Yeah, and Hogan's finished his Objective. Made an 'example' of Metzner… So now he's gonna do time for murder, maximum sentence, no connection to you. Police were useless, heroes were useless, we're all clear."

Ivan suppressed a flinch. _We're not useless, _he thought._ And_ I'm _not useless, either._

Turning away from the window, Ivan walked back to the door, snapping his fingers loudly. The two goons followed him out of the room and back into the elevator, where Ivan hit the button for "roof." Like the crime boss wouldn't have access to the roof, and Ivan wanted to give Sky High a better chance of spooking these mooks into spiriting him away. So far so good on not talking, and as an unexpected bonus, getting these lackeys to talk about Bellisair's crime dealings. Once the heroes had a bit of free time, they could probably dismantle the whole ring.

The elevator opened into a little foyer, and the two men nearly tripped over each other trying to open the door for Ivan. They finally wrenched the rusty thing open, and Ivan strode out onto the flat roof. The view sucked—staring straight up into the underside of the Silver Stage, with the arbitrary square cut out to let the sunshine in blocked by the bottom of the Gold Stage. It made Ivan wonder if Bellisair spent long enough staring up at the two stages above him that his morals snapped and he decided to use his power cruelly, fed up with looking at everyone else towering above him.

"Um… Boss…" the bad-tan-man spoke up. "You _did_ say you'd be gone until Brooks died. So… if something's gone wrong, or you need us to… I dunno…"

"What we mean to say is, we can tell you're mad," Flame-Arm continued. "But maybe if you explained what's going on, we could, y'know, take care of it for you."

Explain. The hair on the back of Ivan's neck stood up. He couldn't speak. If he spoke, he'd instantly blow his cover. Maybe if he stared at them some more…

Ivan turned around, but rather than looking at the criminal goons, a much more familiar and horrifying sight caught his attention: the moon, full tonight, through some trick of the light or atmospheric anomaly dyed red, and against that backlight, the silhouette of a man on the roof of a distant building… taking aim.

"LOOK OUT!" Ivan charged the two men, clotheslining them to the ground just as a flaming crossbow bolt shot over his head. They hit the roof in a tangled heap, and Ivan shifted back into his normal form, Origami Cyclone suit and all. The bolt exploded behind them, right where Ivan-Bellisair had been standing moments before, and burst into a bonfire of blue flames.

Ivan left the disoriented men on the ground, looking back to the skyscraper where Lunatic had stood before—the serial killer had vanished while Ivan was down.

_Lunatic… is hunting Bellisair?_ Ivan realized. But they couldn't let that happen! If Lunatic killed Bellisair, they'd never know how to set Kotetsu right again!

Ivan reached for his call band to alert Sky High, but Lunatic landed on the roof, taking aim with his crossbow again, but pausing as he surveyed the occupants and found Bellisair absent.

"_SAAA,_ Lunatic, we meet once again!" Ivan struck a pose and rolled his head dramatically. He had a character to uphold, after all, and it was easier to not show fear when playing his part and reciting his lines.

"You stand between me and a sinful one," Lunatic told him. "Step aside."

"I cannot! For the one you seek does not reside here!" Ivan braced his hands above his shuriken arsenal, trying to gauge the reaction time of his ninja stars against Lunatic's crossbow. "And I shall not allow you to kill him!"

"Your false justice is weak. Shackled by this rotten world." The pyre behind Lunatic danced ominously. "_Step aside_."

"Never!" Ivan insisted. "The one you seek cannot serve punishment of any kind until he hath set right what he hath made wrong! He is the possessor of a NEXT abil—"

"I know his ability," Lunatic cut Ivan off, his head flopping to the side. "And you must know the crimes he has committed with that power. He will hear the voice of Thanatos."

"You shall not kill him!" Ivan shouted, much braver than he felt. "Not… yet."

"Oh?"

"Lunatic, I shall once and only once… offer you a deal!" Ivan made a fist with one hand, clasped his other hand around his knuckles, and bowed slightly. "Become the ally of we heroes and capture Luthor Bellisair alive. He must be kept alive! And then, after he hath atoned for his wrongdoing, you will have one shot!" Ivan held up a finger to emphasize the 'one-ness' of this shot. "And we heroes shall accept his death!"

Lunatic let his spine flop around a little more, apparently considering. "It is part of your idea of justice to allow me to kill a criminal?"

"Only after his capture, and after he has atoned!" Ivan clarified. "And if you _miss_ your one shot, then no one shall perish."

"I will not miss," Lunatic promised, raising his crossbow to point skyward, away from any humans present. "I accept the terms of your alliance, hero."

With that, Lunatic turned and all but dove through the inferno behind him and off the edge of the building. By the time Ivan took the long way around the flames, Lunatic had vanished without a trace. _How does he do that?_

Before he had too much more time to ponder that mystery, he heard the distant hum of approaching Hero TV helicopters, and remembered the criminal duo, Clemente and Lagner. He turned around and flung a few shuriken, piercing their clothing and pinning them to the roof. Soon, the cameras would be trained on him. He'd have to pose for his sponsors, claim points for these arrests, work to save the civilians inside the building before it burned to the ground—that part was actually important—but for now, Ivan's mind reeled at what he had just done. He bartered away the right to kill a criminal to Lunatic, in exchange for help saving his friends. That was the kind of person he was.

_I didn't have a choice._ Ivan thought. _Right?_

In any case, that'd be for the others to decide right or wrong… Once Ivan figured out how to best explain in the first place that Lunatic was a new member of Team One.


	12. Counsel

"_Hello! You've reached Kotetsu Kaburagi's answering machine. Please leave a your name, number, and a message… Wha… No, turn off, turn o—_ BEEEEEP."

"_Kotetsu? It's me, Barnaby._"

Kotetsu's bleary, half-awake eyes instantly snapped open. _**Kill Bunny**__ that's his voice __**kill Bunny**__ he's nearby __**kill Bunny**__ you're so close __**kill Bunny**__ it's your Objective __**kill Bunny!**_

"_I'm just calling to check up on you. I suppose you won't be showing up to work today, either. I'll be late to work myself; my apartment building had a catastrophic sprinkler system failure last night. I can't move back in until the emergency system is repaired, so I'll be going to pick up some clothes and then find somewhere else to stay for a few nights._"

Kotetsu struggled to sit up, swing his feet off the bed, stand up and go _**kill Bunny,**_ but he could barely twitch his fingers. Someone had tied him up with a strong, thin wire, and he had a sneaking suspicion of who. Well, he really didn't want to use this, since his powers were meant to save people, but he could file this use under the "sometimes you get to save yourself" clause.

With a shout, he powered up, a hundred times his strength and speed and senses—a hundred times _himself_—flowing through his body. So it should be a simple matter of lifting his arms and tearing right through this weak thread—

He couldn't.

Barnaby's voice continued speaking on the answering machine. "_Just let me know if you need any medicine or help. I know you don't like troubling people, but it's much more of a trouble for everyone if you stay sick and don't come to work. Ask for help when you need it._"

Kotetsu tugged and strained and thrashed, but the wire held firm. What was going on? He knew his NEXT still increased his power a hundred times, it was the time limit that screwed him over, why couldn't he break through this wire?

He caught a glimpse of his left arm, and his watch—and a thin trail of silvery wire spooling out of the side. Those jerks had tied him up with his own wire! After two years of development and upgrades from Dr. Saito's supercharged lab, his wires could withstand being pulled with Hundred Power and not stretch, fray, or break. Kotetsu stood no chance of breaking out with force.

"_All of our events yesterday were canceled because of your absence, old man. And then I had to spend ten hours diving in the bay because Dr. Saito wanted data on our suits' dive performance. Just as a fair warning, it'll be your turn soon enough, and it is not pleasant._"

Realizing the futility of continuing to struggle—and by his best guess, with only thirty-five seconds left—Kotetsu focused on getting himself off the bed and to a place where he had more resources, downstairs in the kitchen and living room. He inchwormed his way along the floor, his power speeding up this process incredibly, since he could move a hundred times faster than an ordinary inchworm-man. Even if he did have to burrow under his own doors, head-butting the wood until he created a gap large enough for him to crawl through. It's not like he had another choice: he couldn't stand, first off, and if his friends had thought to tie him up with his own wire, they would have locked his doors and stolen the keys.

"_Today was scheduled to be rather busy as well. I don't know how many events I'll be able to attend without you, but I'll probably be working until late. And I know I am complaining about your sickness, but you shouldn't respond to any hero calls, either. I would like to assume that your lack of response to my personal calls yesterday is because you're taking care of yourself, but you're still in no condition to answer an emergency if you're sick. You could get hurt out there."_

Kotetsu reached the stairs with twenty-three seconds left, and slid down head-first, like a slide. He bumped and jolted along the way, but his Hundred Powered body took the abuse easily. He could see the telephone glowing, advertising Barnaby's caller ID.

"_So I suppose… get well soon, Kotetsu. I'll see you later._"

The phone went dead with a click. Kotetsu continued wriggling, trying to move himself closer to the kitchen so he could find any sort of implement capable of picking his watch. But, his time ended, and suddenly Kotetsu could barely twitch, hog tied with high-tensile cable.

He pouted. This definitely counted as an obstacle. But for the first time in two nights, he wasn't waking up to find someone there babysitting him. Seriously, _Kaede_ barely needed a babysitter anymore, why did the other heroes think he needed to be watched all the time? But, judging by the deafening silence in his home, his friends had decided if they tied him up he'd be fine without supervision for a while.

How wrong they were. It wasn't often that Kotetsu's long career actually translated into wisdom his peers did not possess, but through twelve years of hero work, Wild Tiger had learned that a criminal stayed caught when he gave up. It didn't matter if you had him in unbreakable handcuffs or just held him by the wrist, when a bad guy felt beat, he stayed down.

But Kotetsu would never stay down. Not with _**kill Bunny, kill Bunny, kill Bunny**_ on endless loop in his head, driving him mad. He had to free himself. Even with no powers, he had to get out. Even with no tools, he had to get out. He had to get out. He had to get out.

And an unsupervised prisoner who still had hope might as well be a free man.

* * *

><p>Karina hated ditching her friends during lunch, but if her morning classes were anything to judge by, she needed some time alone to decompress. Not counting sleep deprivation, she couldn't focus at all on her morning lessons, anxious over the quality of the knot-tying that was meant to keep their murderous friend restrained. That stress only compounded with Ivan's confession that he had enlisted Lunatic to help find Bellisair. Enlisted <em>Lunatic<em>! A serial killer bent on destroying the peace in the city and killing every criminals, causing chaos, replacing the judicial system with his own will; might makes right. Giving an inch to a man, no, a _monster_ like that just spelled more trouble. Ivan risked the reputation of the heroes, agreeing to stand aside and let Lunatic kill Bellisair once they were through with him. And if people couldn't believe in the heroes, what would they believe in? Lunatic offered an alternative, a world where no evildoer went unpunished, but a world ruled by violence and fear. The question of "What will Lunatic do?" only compounded with her other fears: "What if Tiger escapes?" "What if Barnaby goes to check on him?" "What if we can't keep them apart long enough to find a cure?" "What if there _is_ no cure?"

She pressed her fingers against her temples, pacing back and forth in the hallway. _No, don't think like that._ She'll see him again, the real him. Back at The Favorite Flame, when she had tried to break the NEXT's command by reminding Kotetsu of his bond with his partner, he laughed it off like it meant nothing. Even if Barnaby and Kotetsu's close relationship worried Karina sometimes—because it's not easy to see another man constantly by your crush's side, giving him those super-emotionally-charged looks—without it, Kotetsu felt _less,_ somehow. Even acting exactly the same as usual, that disregard for someone so important to him, and the way he constantly brushed his friends aside in his quest for blood... Karina just couldn't love a man like that.

_I want him back. The real him._ Karina thought. _The stupid, dorky, rude, clumsy old man with the ridiculous beard—_

"You couldn't possibly be talking about me, could you?"

Karina jumped and whipped around. "M—Mr. Pielberg!" _Was I seriously talking out loud?_

The teacher switched a pile of folders into the other arm and scratched at his own gray beard. "Why would a young lady like yourself have such mean things to say about your teacher?"

"That's not it! I promise I wasn't talking about you!" Karina insisted. "It's someone else with a ridiculous bea—I mean, your beard isn't ridiculous! It's some other guy, and _he_ has a beard that's ridiculous!"

"All right, I believe you," Pielberg smiled. "Make sure you're not late to your afternoon classes, all right?"

"Right!" Karina answered, before she suddenly remembered. "Oh, Mr. Pielberg, I can't come to tutoring today!"

Peilberg stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. "Why not?"

"Because… Um…" Karina gestured to her call bracelet. "There's something I really have to do. I'm sorry."

Peilberg sighed. "Now why couldn't you have waited until graduation before you took up _that_ sort of job?"

"Well, this isn't really for my job… I mean, it is, but it isn't… I know I need tutoring to keep up with my classes when I miss, but you know I get good grades. This is just an emergency."

Peilberg just shook his head. "This is the problem with you and Dragon Kid; the problem with all child heroes, really. You should be focusing on your studies while you're in school."

"I'm eighteen, that makes me a legal adult! I can have whatever job I want!"

"I can see that," Pielberg cracked a small, approving smile. "I'm thankful for the tutoring stipend from your employer, but I have to say I'm much more thankful for the chance to watch you grow up. You're a very different person than you were when we first met. A better person."

Karina blinked and looked away, simultaneously embarrassed and flattered. _Why is Mr. Pielberg picking now of all times to tell me that?_ And maybe he was right, a little bit. Two years ago Karina cared way more about her standing on the recording charts than on the Hero TV leader board. But it's because of the adventures she had, the friends she made, the time she spent with Kotetsu…

"Wait, Mr. Pielberg!" Karina said just as her teacher started to walk away. "Can I… ask you something? Not in the hallway?"

Peilberg looked down at his folders, then shrugged. "All right. There should be an empty classroom nearby…"

They checked two rooms, then found the third one empty. Pielberg set aside his papers and pulled up two chairs.

"So? What's wrong?"

"It's about this emergency," Karina said. "We need to find someone, to prevent a murder. But he's really hard to find, probably in hiding, and we don't have much time. The heroes… we've asked Lunatic to help us."

Peilberg's eyebrows shot up, and Karina waited for his outburst, his condemnation, but he just prompted her, "Go on."

"He wants to kill the man we're searching for, because he's a criminal, but if he does that, then we have no chance of stopping that other murder. We told him that after we stop the murder, then he can kill his target." Karina grasped her knees, clutching them together. "I—I feel like that's something a hero shouldn't do. We can't value one life over another. It's still life!"

"Is that really what you're afraid of?" Peilberg asked gently. "You've been on Hero TV for a few years now. Sometimes, the heroes are too late, even though life is life. You can't compare the lost to the saved."

"I mean, you're right," Karina admitted. "But this is _choosing_ who dies!"

"Did all the heroes agree on this choice?"

"No." They had all been upset when they found out; Pao Lin horrified, Antonio enraged, Nathan offended, Keith shocked, and even Ivan, the very one who had made the agreement, was scared. No one wanted this at all.

"So you aren't the one who made this decision."

"No, but…" Karina curled her hands into fists, tugging on her school uniform's skirt. "I think that I would have made the same choice, if it was up to me. I would have made a deal with a devil to save him."

Peilberg stroked his beard with one hand. "What makes you so sure you've made a deal with a devil?"

"Huh?" Karina gaped at her teacher. "Don't tell me you're a Lunatic supporter!"

"I don't support capital punishment," Peilberg defended himself, before taking a deep breath. "Karina, why are you a hero?"

"To save people." The response felt so automatic now, so natural and right. She couldn't imagine ever being a hero for another reason. No matter how much she cherished her singing career, its reward came completely separate from her work as a hero.

"So you care about them, right?"

"Who?"

"The people you save. You want to protect them because you care about them. Is that right?"

"Right…"

"That's called 'empathy.' I think it's the most important thing a hero possesses: the ability to think of and understand another person's feelings, and the desire to help them."

"I know what empathy is," Karina complained. "There've been dozens of school assemblies to teach us about it."

"Yes, but how many people actually learn?" Pielberg tapped his finger against his temple. "Because most people forget that even someone like Lunatic is a human being."

"So you _are_ a supporter!"

Peilberg shrugged. "Lunatic isn't a hero, and he never will be. He has selective empathy. He cares about the lives and feelings of people antagonized by criminals, but not for the criminals themselves, and a hero can't act like that. You just said it, life is life."

Karina nodded a little. "I guess that makes sense."

"I think that giving Lunatic a chance to help you protect someone you care about is the natural, empathetic, heroic thing to do. You haven't judged or condemned him. You didn't make a deal with a devil. You made a deal with a man."

The words take a little while to seep in, and the full impact doesn't hit Karina in order. _Lunatic as a man? Empathy as a hero? Someone I care about?_

"Wait, you're wrong! W-Who's this 'someone I care about?' You've got the wrong idea!"

Peilberg laughed and gathered up his folders. "It was lovely having this chat with you, Karina. Now don't be late to class."

"Huh? But the bell hasn't—"

A sharp, shrill ring resounded through the entire school, making Karina jump.

"Get to class, young lady," Peilberg said, standing and walking past Karina. "And good luck."

Karina didn't move immediately, her cheeks burning red from how close her teacher came to _another_ secret of hers. But once he was gone, she reconsidered his earlier words. Lunatic's empathy? Selective empathy? She remembered back in the Maverick incident, when Lunatic had ignited a wall of flame between Kotetsu and herself, along with Fire Emblem and the fake Wild Tiger. For some reason, Lunatic had decided to care about Kotetsu's life. And even if Karina had no idea why he would, that action seemed as valid proof as any that Lunatic _did_ care about someone, sometimes maybe a little bit occasionally when it was convenient.

The second bell rang, and Karina stood to prepare her books for next period. Getting some answers about Lunatic's involvement helped ease her headache, but all of her other questions remained, and she knew their answers might be a even harder to accept.


	13. Escape

Antonio swung by Karina's high school to pick her up, Pao Lin already riding shotgun, their mirrored sunglasses glinting in the afternoon light. Karina slid her pair of protective lenses on as she opened the door to the backseat, deciding not to complain about senior rights to the front seat as they drove off toward Kotetsu's apartment.

She checked her watch—three-thirty-ish in the afternoon, which meant that Kotetsu had been alone for… just under nine hours. They had left him that morning relatively confident that the wire would hold, especially since Kotetsu could only use his hundredfold strength for a minute at a time, so he had only had nine minutes of genuine struggle. Karina hoped beyond hope that their amateur tangle of wire could hold someone for nine minutes.

_Maybe I_ should _actually study some bondage._ Karina thought, since it looked like she would need those skills for her job.

Antonio had the radio on, playing unimportant news and vaguely entertaining songs, and it filled the silence between them. Pao Lin tapped against the window, following a beat in her own mind and not matching the song, driving the musician in Karina _crazy_. So she stared out the back window and watched Sternbild fly by, storefronts and pedestrians, and fussed with the lay of her uniform. Even with no one looking at her, her co-workers saw her so infrequently in this outfit. The sensation of her 'worlds' overlapping, Karina Lyle and Blue Rose, rubbed her the wrong way.

Team Two pulled up to the unassuming but nice condo, and Karina managed to appreciate that, through the course of this adventure, she had the chance to visit Kotetsu's house and stand in his bedroom and all sorts of other little things that she had never done before, and wasn't going to forget once this whole ordeal passed. Bringing up her knowledge later—like of where the forks belonged, his cologne brand, and the color of his towels—would be much more difficult.

Antonio checked around the door for structural damage, both from Kotetsu trying to get out or someone else trying to get in to free him, and finding it secure, fished out Kotetsu's keys and let the heroes in. The apartment looked exactly like they had left it, except in nine minutes of work over nine hours time, Kotetsu had managed to move himself from the upstairs bedroom to the downstairs couch, sitting rather normally if not for the thin, shiny wire from his watch binding him head to foot.

Kotetsu frowned at them with his Disapproving Father face. "Took you long enough," he said. "Untie me."

"No," Antonio said. "You'll thank us for this later."

"Why would I thank you for taking me prisoner in my own home?" Kotetsu sighed, a bit shallower than usual. "Did you have to tie this so tight? And couldn't you have at least left the TV on for me? Or called? Did you bring something to eat with you? I'm starving…"

Karina glanced between her teammates and Kotetsu. He had missed at least two meals that day because of them, and his dinner the night before had been hazy. She hadn't thought she might be causing Kotetsu undue pain beyond their restraints. "I mean, we can feed him," Karina ventured. "Right?"

Antonio folded his arms and looked at Kotetsu. "You used your power to get down here," he said.

"So?"

"You were trying to escape."

"Yeah."

"How long until you can use it again?"

"A while," Kotetsu said. "I'm not sure. I can't see a clock."

After another minute, Antonio relented. "I'll see if there's anything left to eat. Dragon Kid, get a glass of water with a straw. Blue Rose, check upstairs."

"For what?"

"Retrace his steps. See if anything's out of place, or if he's made any escape tools."

"Oh, come on!" Kotetsu complained. "You don't trust me? I'm your friend, Wild Tiger!"

"More like Psycho Tiger right now," Pao Lin said bluntly, reaching for an upper cabinet and retrieving a glass.

"She's right," Antonio agreed. "You're our friend, but you're not in your right mind. So, consider yourself grounded."

"I feel fine!" Kotetsu wiggled a little for emphasis. "How do you plan on proving I'm crazy?"

"Objective," Antonio said.

"Kill Bunny," Kotetsu answered automatically.

"You're still grounded."

Growing sick of the strange psuedo-Kotetsu-ness, Karina took the stairs up to the second floor and looked around. Firstly, she noticed a trail of wood flakes and sawdust on the carpet, from the top of the stairs to the door to Kotetsu's bedroom. She approached, seeing maybe a foot of the lower door had been completely busted through, leaving a pet-door like gap that Kotetsu had used to escape his bedroom.

Opening the door like a normal person, Karina stepped inside and looked around. Nothing particularly out of place—Kotetsu's blankets were on the floor rather than on his bed, but besides the door, Kotetsu hadn't broken anything. Karina wondered if maybe they had found the solution to keeping Kotetsu away from Barnaby. He couldn't find any way to get out of these wires. He'd be safe so long as they kept Barnaby away from him, and then once they found Bellisair, they'd know right where to find Kotetsu and fix everything.

A little ray of hope shone in her heart, so Karina set about sprucing the place up a little. She remade Kotetsu's bed and straightened up his desk, stacking a few papers and receipts, sweeping all the loose paper clips into the drawer, and throwing out an empty bag of chips. With those menial chores done, Karina left the bedroom and returned downstairs. Pao Lin sat beside Kotetsu on the couch. She had turned on the TV, and held a glass near his mouth for him. When Karina approached, she realized Pao Lin had found a neon-green crazy straw for him.

"…_Seriously_?" Karina asked, staring at the juvenile straw.

The straw popped out of Kotetsu's mouth. "What?"

"A _crazy straw_?"

"Yeah! Crazy straws make water so much more fun!" Kotetsu insisted, craning his neck and recapturing the end of the straw, eyes going a little crossed as he tried to watch the liquid flowing through the swirls and loops.

Karina slapped a hand against her forehead. _Is he really the oldest person here?_ Honestly, she had fallen in love with a man twice her age, but he acted like it was the other way around.

"Bad news," Antonio said, returning from the kitchen. "He cooked just about everything edible trying to poison Barnaby. There's some fruit, but that's it."

"That's okay. Dragon Kid and I can look after Tiger while you get more food," Karina said.

Antonio nodded and dug out his keys again. "Call if you need me."

"Right," Karina answered, and Antonio left. She found a cutting board and a small fruit knife and started cutting up one of the apples into little cubes. They could feed Kotetsu at least a little bit, and she still felt terrible thinking of how sad the day must have been for him, sitting all alone, unable to move for ninety-nine percent of the time, maybe even scared…

Karina took a deep breath and carefully resumed her tough face before taking the fruit back to the living room on a paper plate. _C'mon, Blue Rose. Play it cool_.

"Care to explain why you busted through your own door, Crusher for Justice?" Karina asked as she sat on Kotetsu's other side. "You've got sawdust in your hair, too."

"Really?" Pao Lin leaned over and tried to see where Karina was looking. "Woah, you're right! Did you really break through the door with your head?"

"I had to! I couldn't stand!" Kotetsu defended.

"I wanna go see!" Pao Lin said, setting down the glass of water and leaping up from the couch. She thumped up the stairs to the scene of the crime. "There's wood _everywhere_!"

"I told you so!" Karina called up, but she didn't hear Pao Lin coming back down. Maybe something else had caught her interest. She looked down at the apple chunks and suddenly realized that, in order for Kotetsu to eat the apples, Karina had to feed him. With her fingers. Her fingers near his lips. Her heart rate suddenly skyrocketed as she debated the awkwardness of standing to get a fork, when Kotetsu suddenly spoke.

"…So I can't count on you, either?" he said softly, voice full of pain.

"Huh?" Karina looked back at him—warm amber eyes, sad and pleading, peeking through his bangs.

"Back then, when we were fighting Maverick. You knew it was me, the real Wild Tiger. You could feel it. You believed in me when no one else did."

"That—I just—" Karina twirled one finger in her hair.

"I believe in you, too, you know."

"You… believe in me?" Karina heart throbbed almost painfully. Sitting next to him, on his sofa, in his house, sent Karina's brain sparking with forbidden fantasies—what if, in another situation, he held her hand? What else could make him look at her so gently? What if he was totally cool eating fruit out of her hand? What if, right now, she leaned over and kissed him?

"I need you, Blue Rose. _You_. Please, help me. Let me go."

"Tiger…" Karina leaned a little closer, and felt the mirrored sunglasses shift on her face. Everything flooded back to her in a rush—the reason they had to tie him up, had to treat him like a prisoner, had to keep him from leaving the house. "I—I can't! It's not your fault, but you _are_ crazy! I won't let you find Barnaby!"

Kotetsu growled and thrashed a little more, his tender-sensitive act crumbling. "You have no idea what this feels like!" he pleaded. "It gets worse the longer I wait! If I don't kill Bunny soon, I _will_ go crazy, for real!"

"We're going to fix it, Tiger, I promise, but we can't let you complete your Objective! You'll regret it forever if you do!"

"I don't care about regret, I have to—" Kotetsu's voice raised, and he suddenly started to shine with a blue aura. "My powers—!"

"They won't do you any good," Karina folded her arms confidently. "You can't rip through that cable with your Hundred Power!"

"Who said anything about ripping?" Kotetsu grinned, and he pushed back against the couch, 'standing.' Karina suddenly saw behind his back—he had worked his wrists together, with a paper clip poking the edge of his watch.

_Oh no._

Karina prepared a bolt of ice, but she was too late. Kotetsu pressed the button on his watch, and the powerful little motor inside un-wove the wires, tearing into his clothes as it dragged along, but leaving no mark on his glowing skin. With no time to worry about the particulars, Karina fired off the strongest blast of ice she could and struck Kotetsu straight in the chest. He flew across the room and froze to the wall, ice encasing his torso and arms.

"What happened?" Pao Lin appeared at the top of the stairs, assessing the fight and charging a bolt of lightning, but before she could loose it on her co-worker and stun him again, Kotetsu flexed and shattered the ice, dropped low to the floor, dodged Karina's follow-up shot, and bust through his own door, leaving behind more wooden debris.

"TIGER!" Karina shouted after him, running to the door, but he had already vanished; not even a blur of blue light to follow.

"I'll call Bison!" Pao Lin said. "You call Ms. Agnes!"

Karina stared out at the street for another minute, but grabbed tapped her call band and opened a channel with the Hero TV executive producer.

The video feed clicked to life: Agnes sat at a desk, prim and perfect as ever. "_Agnes Joubert speaking._"

"Tiger's loose!" Karina cried. "You've got to get Barnaby out of Apollon, now!"

"_Don't shout, Blue Rose. It's unbecoming of an idol,_" Agnes said smoothly, flipping some of her hair "_When did he escape?_"

"Just now! Like, ten seconds ago!"

"_That's all? That's plenty of time. Honestly, this is why you're all worked up? I've already got a plan in place, don't worry. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, too…_"

"That's great, but are you sure Barnaby will be out in time?"

"_You have my word. Just leave it up to me._"

Agnes hung up, and Karina breathed deeply, struggling to calm down. _That was... actually pretty clever._ Rather than trying to break his bonds with brute force, Kotetsu took advantage of the hyper-powered motor in his watch that he used for single-wire swinging. The device could completely recoil the wire and prepare it for another launch in seconds, apparently no matter how tangled the wires were, as long as Kotetsu could reach the right switch. All he needed was to wait for his Hundred Power to return, but rather than using it to struggle or fight, he used it to protect himself against the wires as they dragged across his skin. Otherwise, he would have been cut to ribbons, a bit like his clothes.

_His clothes!_ Karina looked back to the couch. Kotetsu had left a few little scraps of cloth behind, from his vest, his shirt… his pants…

Karina grabbed the nearest piece of fabric—the end of Kotetsu's tie—and held it under her nose, anticipating a flow of blood as she struggled to eliminate the ordinarily pleasant but currently inconvenient mental images. No matter how impulsive and immature the older hero acted, Karina would never deny Kotetsu's sweet, sweet body had a certain… effect on her.


	14. Disguise

Agnes clipped her cell phone shut after Karina's panicked call. Honestly, the heroes all had their hearts in the right place, but they gave into hysteria far too easily. This was just another episode of Hero TV: two hundred points for subduing the criminal, a hundred points for rescuing the civilian. A lack of cameras did not change those rules. If anything, keeping a cool head was key to solving this problem. If they panicked, Kotetsu and Barnaby might panic, and then they might do something stupid and unpredictable. So far, the only thing that surprised Agnes was that they had been so effective at distracting the two partners that they had completely forgotten their cell phones as an extra means of communication. And even without all their specialized weapons and gadgets, they had several other great advantages: teamwork, for one, rather than competition, along with secrecy, the element of surprise, and the special Call All function Agnes had added to their call bands for faster coordination, similar to the program that she used to call the heroes for an emergency. Honestly, did the heroes expect her to hold their hands the whole way? They were supposed to be professionals.

"Amanda, could you send Barnaby up to see me in conference room nine? Thank you."

Agnes gathered up her 'supplies' purchased last night and brought them to the conference room. Oh, she would give _anything_ to make this a real Hero TV episode. The heart-pounding chase, the angst of partner hunting partner, the thrilling twist when the past-his-prime, Second-League hero Wild Tiger escapes the custody of three First-League heroes... Ah, the forbidden fruit. The epic ratings of the Hero TV episode featuring homicidal NEXT Kotetsu T. Kaburagi had barely been worth the media headache of getting Wild Tiger's identity back under wraps. Maintaining his good name, while trying to explain how he knew all the heroes' personal secrets, _and_ still insisting he wasn't actually Wild Tiger, though he spent the whole episode claiming he was, had taken Agnes and Lloyds weeks of overtime. And besides, in the current situation, the heroes wanted to preserve Barnaby's innocence as well. Broadcasting Kotetsu's quest on live TV would alert his partner instantly, and no one wanted the young hero to have _another_ existential meltdown that would take another year-long leave of absence to sort out.

But, maybe all was not lost... Agnes pulled out a memo pad and jotted down some notes. She could reproduce this sort of drama in a sort of game, like cops and robbers, except with a hero designated as the robber for the evening. Award points to the robber for the longer they avoided capture, award maximum points to the hero who catches the robber. But how would she film the hero-suspect escaping capture? If she had a camera trained on them the whole time, then there would be no thrill of the hunt, the other heroes could just follow the helicopters. Maybe a first-person button camera? Would that work? And would the hero be expected to escape in full costume, or could they use a civilian disguise? Would that compromise anyone's identity? Could she work in the second-league heroes—as sidekicks, or as a separate team, the underdogs? Frankly, she _needed_ a way to work the famous Tiger and Barnaby duo into such a scenario…

"Ms. Agnes?"

Agnes looked up as Barnaby stepped inside the room, as poised and compliant (and unwitting) as ever.

"Bonjour," Agnes said, smiling slightly. "Thank you for coming. And I also want to thank you for your understanding yesterday. I eventually sorted it all out, a miracle in and of itself."

"I'm glad to hear that. I'm sorry Kotetsu is out today as well."

"Oh, that's hardly your fault," Agnes said. "How was your testing with Dr. Saito, by the way?"

After years of learning Barnaby's 'composed' face, the tiny twitch at the corner of his eye was all Agnes needed to know Barnaby had _not_ enjoyed Saito's testing in the slightest.

"It went... well," Barnaby obviously lied. "It would have been nice to know what he expected of me before I arrived."

"More transparency about future events, understood," Agnes ticked an invisible checkbox with one finger. "Like right now. Venus Cosmetics is interested in using a hero for their next advertising campaign. They want to focus on extreme transformations, and how their makeup allows the user to become absolutely anyone else."

"Oh? And what does this have to do with me?"

"The cosmetics industry constantly has to fight accusations of fakeness. Airbrushing, digital editing. You may be a man, but you use your real identity for your hero work. You're associated with sincerity. Plus, it would make your transformation all the more extreme."

Barnaby's eyebrows pulled together a little bit, confused but not suspicious.

"They might not even decide to use you," Agnes continued. "Their marketing department just wants a little 'proof of concept,' and if you can transform enough to appear in public undetected."

"Like a disguise," Barnaby said.

"Please, it's only a disguise if you're hiding from someone," Agnes dismissed. "This is a transformation. A whole new you."

Except it was totally a disguise. Venus Cosmetics already had a deal with Blue Rose—endless lipstick and eye shadow if she endorsed their products. But who could blame Agnes for wanting to take advantage of this situation?

"All right. Where's their makeup artist?"

Agnes smiled. "I've been a Venus girl since middle school. _I'll_ be the makeup artist."

Agnes sat Barnaby down in one of the conference chairs and brought out the enormous makeup case she had prepared yesterday when the heroes designated her as a member of Team Three. Besides, in this situation, she could write off the whole set, case and all, as a company expense. Barnaby sat still like a true professional, accustomed to makeup wedges, brushes, and pencils. A little-known fact, most talk shows and photo shoots brushed up their male subjects with just a little foundation to even out blemishes and keep them from looking too flat and pale under intense stage lights. Agnes smoothed foundation across his skin, focusing on his chin and disguising all evidence of stubble, grateful that Barnaby shaved cleanly and closely.

From there, Agnes let loose.

Blush, just a light rosy shade, barely noticeable until she added low-lighter under his cheekbones. Eyeshadow, peach and a slightly darker brown, emphasizing Barnaby's brilliant green eyes. A little eyeliner, another brown shade to stay nice and neutral while accentuating the shape of his eyes, and mascara (Agnes had to admit she was a little jealous of how Barnaby had such long eyelashes naturally; it was almost a shame to add anything to them) before Agnes finished off the look with highlighter under his eyebrows and a dash of cherry lipstick.

She stepped back and admired her handiwork. Apollon wanted a pretty-boy hero, and they got one, but no one acknowledged exactly _how_ pretty he was. And just as she had suspected, nay, even better than she had dreamed, Barnaby made a gorgeous woman. His cool demeanor translated into a tempting elegance, like an unattainable ideal rather than a mere mortal. And even with clothes meant for a man, his soft, fluffy hair and hints of jewelry, the gold chain and the fashion ring, offset the androgyny and slapped him firmly on the side of female.

"Finished?" Barnaby asked.

"Almost," Agnes pulled out a camera. "Just need some reference pictures for Venus."

"You've made me a woman, haven't you?" he said, unable to see his reflection and check himself.

"A dramatic transformation," Agnes smiled. "Just act like any other modeling shoot. If you try to pose like a woman, you'll be overdoing it."

Barnaby complied and flashed his "See ya" at the camera, and went through some standard modeling looks—The Smile, The Stare, The Over the Shoulder. He stood, and Agnes took some more photos, taking in the full feminine Barnaby.

"Tell me, Barnaby, have you ever considered what your name might have been if you were born a girl?"

"That's an odd question."

"It's something I'm curious about, in all people," Agnes said. "I usually try to make a match based on meaning. 'Agnes' means 'sacred,' and I have a few options in French. 'Aousten' is my current preference, meaning 'venerable.' Aousten Joubert."

"Interesting," Barnaby said. "I haven't thought about names that much."

"Do you know what 'Barnaby' means?"

"Son of comfort. I'm not sure if it has an equivalent female name. But since I was named after my father, I assume that, if I were a girl, I would be named after my mother, Emily. Emily Brooks Jr."

Agnes snapped one last photo, a beautiful shot with Barnaby's eyes wistful and shining, and reviewed the pictures. "All right, that's a good photo set. I heard that you've had to move out of your apartment temporarily?"

"Yes, while they repair the sprinkler system."

"I brought a set of clothes I'd like you to put on. Then we'll leave Apollon to see if anyone recognizes you. There's no point in coming back for it after, so I'll get your suitcase."

"My work will finish early today?"

"Think of it as a reward for a terrible yesterday," Agnes said, taking the camera with her. "Be back soon."

Smiling at her prize, Agnes called the elevator back to Barnaby's desk. Now she had something even better than a swimsuit shoot for Ms. Carter now.

* * *

><p>Keith jogged along the path, John tugging against the leash in front of him. <em>Walk the dog, and then meet Ms. Agnes and Mr. Barnaby.<em> He had been outside for about twenty minutes, following the walking trail that Agnes had said she and Barnaby would eventually cross. Team Three was so interesting, not like Team Two, which made him tired, and Team One, which made him sad. And now he would get to hang out with Barnaby! He never got to hang out with Barnaby! It was always Barnaby with Kotetsu, or Barnaby with everyone else, never Barnaby alone. _This is so exciting!_

He looped the path again, John happily trotting ahead. Keith guessed that John liked the company. It would be great to be a dog and do lots of dog-like things, play with frisbees and run around, but Keith certainly couldn't let John roam free at all hours of the day while he was at work or on patrol. So John had to spend a lot of time inside, which Keith didn't think was fun at all. He liked people way too much to want to stay inside all the time and wait for people to visit him. And he could still run around and play with frisbees, so long as he didn't catch the frisbee in his mouth. That was John's job.

On the next loop, Keith saw his target—well, technically he only saw Agnes, and a friend of hers—a young blonde woman in a dress shirt and pencil skirt, carrying a small suitcase. Maybe she was visiting Agnes from out of town! Agnes always had people scurrying around her, that probably meant she had lots of friends, too.

"Ms. Agnes!" Keith waved, tugging John's leash and guiding him toward the executive producer and her friend. "I didn't know you liked to come to this park!"

"It's very nice," Agnes flipped some hair over her shoulder. "Seemed like the perfect place to spend a day like today."

John poked his wet nose at Agnes' knee, sniffing her.

"Right! John, this is Ms. Agnes. She works where I work." After a few more inquisitive sniffs and a rub behind the ears from the executive producer, John approved and licked her hand.

"And then this is… Um, sorry, I don't think we've met," Keith offered his hand to Agnes' friend. "My name is Keith. It's nice to meet you, and again, nice!"

The woman looked down at his hand. "It's me."

"Excuse me?"

"Keith, it's me."

Keith frowned. He hated when people used 'me' instead of their names. Keith was 'me,' everyone else was 'you,' and most importantly, they all had very important names! Names he used when trying to tell them apart! And for the life of him, Keith had absolutely no memory of this woman.

"I am very sorry, but I don't think we've met," Keith said as John investigated this second new person. "If we have, would you mind telling me your name again?"

"This is Barnaby," Agnes stepped in, giving the wind wizard a very pointed look.

Keith looked back to the woman. _This is Mr. Barnaby?_ But it couldn't be. She had blonde hair like Barnaby, and green eyes, and glasses, and the same height, but she was wearing makeup, and most importantly, a skirt. The woman looked away, uncomfortable with Keith's examination, but he just couldn't believe it.

"If you're Mr. Barnaby, why are you wearing makeup?" She didn't look at all like Nathan when he put on makeup and high heels.

Either her cheeks flushed, or the light caught her rouge just right and made it appear darker. "Ms. Agnes said it was for Venus Cosmetics," she answered.

"Oh! Are you a model?"

"_Keith,_ please stop," the woman insisted. "This is embarrassing enough as it is."

"Why would you be embarrassed, miss? You're very pretty."

_Now_ the woman blushed, and John barked once, as if he wanted attention.

"Keith, why don't you take Barnaby home and let him wash up," Agnes recommended, staring intensely at Keith as if he had done something wrong, which made no sense. Keith had followed the plan perfectly! The only problem was Barnaby was missing!

"Eh? But Mr. Barnaby isn't—"

"I meant, take Emily!" Agnes interrupted, pushing the girl—Emily—toward Keith. "You're off for the day, right? Just take her and be a _team player_!"

Team player… Team Three! Somehow ensuring Emily's safety was crucial to Team Three's success! Though Keith couldn't begin to guess at why protecting one of Agnes' friends fell in with the duty of keeping Barnaby away from Kotetsu, Keith would not allow someone to remain in distress!

"All right, come with me! I live very close, and you don't have to worry, because a friend of Ms. Agnes is a friend of mine!" Keith beamed, pulling on the leash for John to come with them. "As I said, I am Keith, and this is my dog, John! We'll be sure to take care of you, Miss Emily!"

For some strange reason, Emily slapped a hand to her forehead in exasperation, her high heels clicking along the path as she went.


	15. Accident

"Mommy, why are that guy's clothes all ripped up?"

"Shh, Timmy, don't stare at the crazy man."

Kotetsu walked on, ignoring them, but he did spare a glance at his clothes. They were at least structurally intact, which was good, because getting detained for public indecency would slow down his Objective too much. A shame about his tie, because he liked his tie, sliced off at his mid-chest, but he could replace clothes. The Objective demanded some collateral damage.

_**Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny.**_

_Soon._

After bursting out of his house, Kotetsu had a short forty seconds to run as far as he possibly could. He leapt high over most of the cars, probably scared a few drivers, but managed to make it a few blocks away from one of Sternbild's structural pillars, the enormous steel and stone statues that elevated the Silver Stage above the Bronze, and the Gold above them both. Grappling wire would be the fastest way to get from Bronze to Gold, and to the Apollon Media building, especially considering that Kotetsu had left his wallet at home in his mad dash for freedom.

Passers-by either openly stared at Kotetsu's violently disheveled appearance, or pretended they didn't see him and drifted to the furthest path on the sidewalk for fear he was insane and dangerous. Both reactions were familiar to Kotetsu, but no one ever approved of him anyway, so why bother caring now?

He took aim with his watch and launched the cable, the tiny pin lodging into the side of the pillar. With a twist of the other button, Kotetsu launched into the air, swinging up to the point of contact. Before he hit, he released the cable and shot it again, this time at a higher point on the pillar that gave him a little swing. The cable recoiled yet again, pulling him even higher, and Kotetsu used the momentum and flipped up onto the Silver Stage. More startled pedestrians drew back in alarm and fear, but Kotetsu ignored them, instead taking aim at another pillar, this time to the Gold Stage.

The Gold Stage citizens had a similar reaction to those on the Stages below them, but Kotetsu just kept his head down and made a beeline for the building with the giant winged lion on the front—what, a lio-gle? Is that a thing?—ascending the garden stairs.

_**Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny.**_

He ascended the garden terrace, just as he had a thousand times before, scanning the crowd of people leaving for any signs of Barnaby. At this distance, he's looking for a blonde in a red jacket. He saw a few jackets, and a few blondes, but no blondes in jackets. Maybe up near the top of the stairs, in the distance, a likely shade of blonde hair, not dressed like Barnaby at all, but worth checking out—

"Kotetsu!"

Kotetsu whipped around at the sound of Barnaby's voice behind him. _**Kill Bunny.**_ Looking furiously back and forth, Kotetsu searched for the source of the voice. Where? Where!

"Kotetsu!" the voice called again, and Kotetsu pinpointed its location. Barnaby stood just a bit down the road, looking exactly as Kotetsu expected him to—hair, glasses, jacket, pants, boots. He stared at Kotetsu with scathing disapproval, but Kotetsu didn't really see it.

**KILL.**

Barnaby turned and ran, off the path and into the gardens, kicking up dirt and daffodils as he went. Kotetsu charged in pursuit, leaping the low guardrail and sliding through the soil, following that blonde head as it bobbed and swerved away from the Apollon building. Foliage whipped him, tree and bush branches dragging across his face, arms, and legs, but Kotetsu ignored the pain. Finally, he had Barnaby in his sight! He could finally complete his Objective! Finally, finally, finally!

The garden gave way to a wide Gold Stage boulevard, the kind that ended up in all of Sternbild's tourist brochures… but Barnaby was nowhere to be found. _Where did he go __**kill Bunny?**_ Among people yet again, some stared and a few pointed at Kotetsu's ragged and now slightly bloody appearance, but since none of them were Barnaby, Kotetsu didn't care.

"Kotetsu!"

"Bunny!" Kotetsu spotted him again, at the end of the street and vanishing around a corner. "Bunny!"

He took off running again, blazing past pedestrians and tossing a half-hearted "Sorry!" over his shoulder. No time to slow down. There, running ahead of him, torso low and arms spread in a kind of gliding-hawk run, _that's Bunny __**kill Bunny**__ that's Bunny __**kill Bunny**_. Adrenaline and Objective pulsing through his veins, Kotetsu chased Barnaby at top speed, not even slowing down when he tripped on the curb, on uneven pavement, on an old flyer.

That pattern repeated—see Barnaby, chase Barnaby, lose Barnaby, see Barnaby again, chase him again. Kotetsu could feel pain and exhaustion beating in his feet, in his lungs, in his skin, but he shoved it aside and through sheer will refused to feel it. Just **kill Bunny**_**.**__  
><em>

The chase took him past a massive video screen: the OBC MainScreen, and Kotetsu saw the time. It had been an hour since his escape from his own home. Now if everyone would just move…

The crowd shifted, people moving unwittingly in and out of Kotetsu's path to Barnaby, weaving back and forth, but for a split second, Kotetsu had a clear shot. He powered up and launched himself at Barnaby, tacking him and sending them both flying, tumbling across the pavement. He heard screams—from the people, from Barnaby, from himself—but the loudest sound of all, inside Kotetsu's own head, drowned it all out.

_**Kill kill kill kill kill kill KILL KILL KILL KILL—**_

"_TIGER-SAN_!"

Kotetsu stopped short. He had his hands wrapped around Barnaby's throat, ready to crush his windpipe beneath his fingers, but it wasn't Barnaby anymore. It was a thin young man in a lavender jacket, with pale blonde hair and violet eyes.

"O—Origami!" Kotetsu removed his hands and checked for any other sign of injury. "Dammit, I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! Are you okay?"

A little teary-eyed, Ivan nodded and sat up. A few people approached, wondering if there was a problem or if they needed an ambulance, but both Kotetsu and Ivan waved them away with vague excuses.

"Thank goodness you're okay. I almost killed you!" Kotetsu grinned, and let out a sigh of relief, before he looked around. "Where did Bunny go?"

Gasping for breath, Ivan whispered in a small, raspy voice, "He… never here."

"Huh?"

"Think."

Kotetsu thought, about their crazy path, the strange running form, losing sight of Barnaby and then seeing him again somewhere completely different…

"Wait… Origami, was I chasing you? The whole time?"

Ivan nodded, still breathless and massaging his neck. A few red marks stood out against his pale skin.

"You transformed into Bunny? Why would you do that?" Kotetsu frowned, betrayed and afraid. "You know I need to kill him! I don't want to kill _you_, but I can't tell the difference if you pretend to be him!"

"Why not?"

"Eh? Because you're identical..."

After a deep breath, Ivan said hoarsely, "I mean, why won't you kill me?"

"Because you're my friend."

"Barnaby-san is your friend."

"Yes, but it's my Objective to kill him," Kotetsu shook his head. "Why is this so hard for you guys to understand?"

"Tiger-san, listen," Ivan said. "If you keep hunting Barnaby-san, you'll hurt others, too."

"A hero doesn't hurt people. And I'm a hero, aren't I?"

"The Objective will hurt people. People you care about."

"Ah, you're trying to talk me out of my Objective again, aren't you?" Kotetsu smiled. _Silly Origami._ "You should start a club with Blue Rose. Even if I wanted to stop my Objective, I couldn't."

"You _do_ want to stop! Believe me!" Ivan insisted, voice full of breathy cracks. "You're just have to fight it!"

"I can't fight an Objective. That's why it's an Objective," Kotetsu stood up and offered his hand to help Ivan up, but the blonde ignored it, still nursing his bruised neck.

"I really am sorry I hurt you," Kotetsu said. "But once this is all over, it'll just be a funny mistake. The kind of thing we'll laugh about after Bunny's dead."

Ivan looked up at Kotetsu, but his pale blond hair screened his eyes "No, it won't."

He sighed. "I guess I can't make you guys understand," Kotetsu adjusted the remains of his ripped vest on his shoulders. "And I wish it wasn't true, but this means until my Objective is done, you and the other heroes are my enemies."

Ivan lowered his gaze, staring down at the street instead. Kotetsu reached out and ruffled Ivan's hair.

"Y'know, you really _are_ a great hero, Origami," Kotetsu encouraged. "Just stay out of my way for now, okay?"

Still motionless, Ivan didn't respond to Kotetsu's gesture, so Kotetsu walked away, back toward Apollon. He should sweep the building again, see if anyone knew where Barnaby had gone. Check Barnaby's apartment again, even if he couldn't live there, to see if he had visited.

_**Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny.**_

No rest until he was dead.

* * *

><p>Ivan sat for a few minutes more after Kotetsu left him on the pavement, his right hand hand rubbing his neck as the left drifted to other body parts complaining of injury—scrapes on his knees and elbows, a bruise on his back, another on his shoulder. Nothing felt broken, but Ivan felt a shiver of fear thinking of all the 'applications' for Hundred Power on another human being's body.<p>

_Kotetsu-san really would have killed me. He was going to do it. Without a second thought, too..._

Finally, Ivan pushed himself up and limped away from the scene, pulling out his cell phone and texting Keith: _Is Barnaby-san safe?_

A minute later, Ivan got his response: _Yes! :-)_

Good. Ivan's role on Team Two had been a success. Everyone had discounted the possibility of Ivan acting as decoy for Barnaby—and Ivan himself hadn't wanted to bring it up, fearing for his own life—but his rapid response bought Agnes and the other heroes enough time to get Barnaby out of Apollon and closer to Keith's house, so they could set up a perimeter in case Kotetsu caught wind of Barnaby's location.

It still worried him that Team One consisted of a completely unsupervised Lunatic, but that close call put Bellisair out of most of the heroes' minds. Kotetsu had almost found Barnaby. And Kotetsu probably wouldn't fall for the same trick twice—he'd be faster, less restrained, snapping necks first and asking questions later.

Day Two of this nightmare, and the end already seemed impossibly far away. It felt like this would be Ivan's life forever, failing, barely making up for it, failing again, and never fully repairing the damage. And the ultimate failure haunted him—if Kotetsu reached Barnaby, everything would be finished.

But for now, rendezvous with the other heroes. Tell them what had happened, decide what to do next.


	16. Ignorance

When the third policeman stopped him and asked this giant list of annoying questions, like "excuse me, sir, do you need help," "do you live around here," and "can I see some ID please," Kotetsu knew he had to go home and regroup. He lost a lot of time on that wild goose chase with Ivan, but at least now he knew not to expect any help from his friends. Well, no big deal. It's not like their help had been very helpful in the first place. It was almost as if they didn't want him to kill Barnaby.

He made his way back home, to his front door, the gaping hole covered over with newsprint and duct tape. A pretty nice repair job, considering, and Kotetsu took a moment to appreciate his friends' handiwork before tearing through it and entering the condo.

New vest. New tie. Shirt didn't look too bad, actually, and neither did the pants, so let them be. Shoes stained with dirt and scuffmarks, but lots of people had beat-up shoes. Just a matter of standards rather than hobo-ness, like the rest of his clothes had led people to believe. Besides, get in, get out. Don't linger. He had so much to do: like comb Barnaby's apartment again, so he should head back there and resume his search. Just grab his wallet to make sure the police won't slow him down for not having ID.

Then he noticed Barnaby's little robot on his bedside table. And the cell phone next to it, plugged in and displaying a full battery charge.

_I have a cell phone __**kill Bunny**__._

Kotetsu continued staring at the phone. His hand, on autopilot, reached for the little robot and slid it in his pocket.

_I have a cell phone __**kill Bunny**__._

Yes, he did… He had a cell phone… And if he had a cell phone… That meant…

_I HAVE A CELL PHONE __**kill Bunny**__!_

The penny dropped, and Kotetsu snatched up the phone, furiously dialing.

* * *

><p>Keith's house reminded Barnaby of covers for Good Housekeeping and other domestic magazines, not because the carpet matched the drapes, but because it felt homey and inviting, lots of cushy places to sit, knickknacks along the walls and shelves, and an expansive collection of well-loved board games tucked under the television for friendly gatherings. Barnaby wondered about the stories behind all these mementos, and supposed there might be a grain of truth to collecting objects associated with happy memories. If Keith spent all his time at home surrounded by things that reminded him of other happy days stretching through his entire life, no wonder he was such a bright, optimistic person.<p>

Once he finally scrubbed off all that makeup and changed into a set of his usual clothes, Keith instantly recognized Barnaby—_the dolt_—and started apologizing profusely, not only repeating himself, "I'm sorry, and again, I'm sorry!" but repeating the repetitions, until Barnaby felt sick of listening to him talk. Keith had a wonderful way of making everything seem all right, but after a while, his sunny cheerfulness wore a person down. Barnaby's mistaken gender had been embarrassing enough already, and he wished he could tell Keith to just drop the matter.

The next best option had been to send him grocery shopping.

"Good idea! I will make dinner for us!" Keith said. "It might be a while before your building is fixed, but you can live here for as long as you like!"

So Barnaby thanked him (once) and promised to look after John while Keith was away. Which turned out to be easier said than done, and not because John was a loud or rambunctious dog. Barnaby didn't know many dogs, but he could tell John was extremely well-behaved.

Oh no, the trouble began when Barnaby started unpacking. Keith didn't have a spare bedroom, but compared to alternatives Barnaby knew he would be comfortable on Keith's couch, so he started unpacking a few bare necessities to create the impression that he had already settled and that it would be kinder to let him stay than uproot him and force him to sleep in the bed. He had left most of his belongings in the apartment, so he pulled out the pink bunny plushie, set it aside, and dug through his clothes to the bottom, where he had packed his smaller personal items: electric toothbrush, glasses case, travel-sized box for his jewelry, and the family photo from when he was a child.

With those items carefully arranged on an end table to stake Barnaby's claim to the couch, Barnaby looked back and realized that, while his back was turned, John had stolen the pink bunny and dragged it over to his dog bed, where he lay with his paws and head resting on the fluffy toy, eyes half-closed and sleepy.

Barnaby froze. That was _his_ bunny plushie, _his_ birthday present from two years ago, _his_ object of comfort and precious memories! And John just took it! Without permission! Well, how a dog would ask for permission to play with a toy remained a mystery, but that was irrelevant! Barnaby had to rescue the plushie before John damaged it!

He took a cautious step toward the golden retriever. Then another. John perked up and seemed to smile at Barnaby, his tongue hanging out as he panted. Barnaby glanced at the long, pink tongue, and fearing doggy drool on his plushie, retreated back. John quirked his head to the side, but decided the motion didn't mean anything, and he lay his head back down on the bunny's stomach.

_The direct approach is no good_. If he just walked up to John, he ran the risk of sending the dog into 'play' mode, with the bunny poised to become John's chew toy. At the present moment, John presented little risk to the bunny's safety, just sitting with it calmly, but Barnaby needed it back before anything worse happened.

Perhaps he could draw the dog away with another toy? Barnaby looked around his feet for something to distract the canine thief with, and soon found a well-chewed yellow tennis ball. He flicked his hand and let the ball bounce across the room in a gentle arc. John looked up at the ball, but just watched it bounce away, completely uninterested in pursuit, and lay back down again.

Barnaby frowned. He was running out of options. If he couldn't approach or distract John, he had no way of reaching his bunny plushie. He could almost feel the stuffed toy's button eyes staring at him, pleading for his help. But what to do? Really, his only option left was to use his Hundred Power, dash in a hundred times faster than a normal person, move John aside, pull out the bunny… But that was a stupid application of his power! And what if he accidentally broke something in Keith's house, or worse, injured John? Keith would be devastated, possibly even beyond forgiveness, and Barnaby would never wish harm on an animal, not even one that had stolen from him.

But damn it... He wanted his bunny back! Barnaby looked down at the floor and curled one fist. Though he gathered all of his essential belongings within a few minutes, Barnaby had stayed at his apartment for another half hour searching for the little robot toy his parents had given him, but it was nowhere to be found, a fact that truly distressed the star hero. Barnaby could count all of his truly precious, irreplaceable possessions on one hand. To lose one, and now, faced with the possibility of losing another…

His cell phone suddenly rang, startling him from his thoughts. Barnaby looked from his buzzing pocket to John, still lying peacefully on the bunny, and then back to his pocket, before pulling out the phone and checking the caller ID.

_Kotetsu_. Barnaby sighed. So Kotetsu finally saw fit to return his calls. _Maybe getting over his pride and asking for help, for once_. He flipped the phone open, the holo-screen projecting a few inches above the surface of the device.

"So, old man. How are you feeling?" Barnaby asked as Kotetsu flickered into view, a harried expression on his face.

"_Where are you?_" Kotetsu blurted out.

"Excuse me?"

"_Where are you, Bunny?_" he repeated, a bit slower.

"Why do you ask?" Barnaby's brow furrowed. "Do you need me to come check on you?"

"_Check on me?_" Kotetsu repeated, equally confused. "_No, I need to find you. I've been to Apollon twice, but you're never there._"

Barnaby sighed. "Kotetsu, I told you not to come in to work while you're sick."

"_Sick? Who told you I was sick?_"

The blonde paused. Come to think of it, Kotetsu didn't sound like he was sick at all—no wheezing voice, runny nose, sneezing or coughing. He certainly sounded normal, if a bit frazzled. His face on the video phone supported this verdict. "Ms. Agnes did," Barnaby said slowly.

"_Dammit, she's with them…_" Kotetsu muttered on the other end, glancing aside at something out of the frame.

This was getting strange. "Kotetsu, what's going on? Why aren't you answering your call band?"

"_They took it from me!_" Kotetsu held up his bare wrist for Barnaby to see. "_But that's okay! I have my phone now! Bunny, tell me where you are, and don't go anywhere else._"

"Why?"

"_There's something I have to do, and I need to find you."_

Barnaby nodded. "All right. Do you know where Sky High lives?"

"_Yeah, I've been there a few times._"

"He's offered to let me stay with him while my building is under repair."

"_Great! Wait for me there! Don't leave! I'm on my way!_"

"All right. See you soon, Kotetsu."

The call ended, and Barnaby folded his phone to put it away when he suddenly felt a cold, wet nose nudging his other hand. He looked down at John the dog, nuzzling Barnaby's hand and whining quietly, eyes big and sad. Barnaby ruffled the dog's ears affectionately—_nothing to worry about, John, it was just Kotetsu_—before he suddenly realized this meant the plushie was unguarded. With a swift leap, Barnaby dodged the dog and bolted to his bed, snatching up the bunny and wrapping it in his arms protectively. John barked, wondering if this was some sort of game, and Barnaby kicked the tennis ball from earlier in his direction. John's ears perked up and he followed the ball, bringing it back to his doggy bed in place of Barnaby's stuffed bunny.

_That was close_. Barnaby thought, pulling out his suitcase and packing the bunny back in. Come to think of it, with a pet around, Barnaby couldn't leave out any of his belongings in good confidence, so he packed everything into his suitcase yet again and slid it under Keith's couch. He'd just have to find another way of convincing Keith not to surrender the bed.

Keith returned a few minutes later with arms full of groceries. "I'm back!" he announced. John stood and trotted over to Keith to greet him. "I wasn't sure what you wanted to eat, so I got a lot of different things!"

"You didn't have to do that. I'm imposing on you," Barnaby said.

"Not at all! I have wanted to get to know you better for a long time. Now is the perfect chance!" Keith breezed by to the kitchens with the bags. "It's so strange that we've worked together for more than two years, but we haven't spent any time together outside of work!"

"We're both busy people," Barnaby said, leaving out the fact that he had taken a year off, cutting into their opportunities for co-worker camaraderie. "You have your night patrol, after all. I shouldn't interrupt that, either."

"It's fine. I'll let the other heroes take care of the city tonight. We have so much we can do together! I have ingredients for baking, and we could play a board game, or make a puzzle! Or watch a movie!"

"A movie night for the three of us," Barnaby added with a little smile.

"You, me, and John!"

The dog grinned at Barnaby, eyes bright and tongue hanging out happily.

"Yes, John too," Barnaby amended. "Then I suppose I was referring to a movie night for three _people_."

"Oh? Who's the third person?"

"Kotetsu."

Glass shattered. Both Barnaby and John darted to the kitchen—Keith had dropped a jar of spaghetti sauce, bright red goop splattered across the floor.

"Ah! I'm sorry, and again, sorry!" Keith bent down and started picking glass from the sauce. "It... It slipped. Now, what did you say?"

"I think we should include Kotetsu. He's coming over soon."

"R-Really? I didn't invite him…"

"He called me, just a few minutes before you came back."

"And you told him that you're here?"

Barnaby paused. _Why does he sound so nervous?_ "Yes, I did. He said he needed to see me. We can probably convince him to stay for a movie, or at least dinner."

Keith threw the worst of the glass in a trash bin under the sink, but then became preoccupied shoving John's nose away from the tasty human-food treat, for fear of lingering glass splinters. "So he knows where you are?" he repeated.

"…Yes. That's what I just said."

_"She's with them."_

Nathan had insisted Barnaby not go home, on the very night that his sprinkler system exploded. Agnes told Barnaby that his partner was sick, and sent him out of Apollon as an unrecognizable woman, a getup she had insisted was not a disguise. Keith expressed surprise and anxiety when told Kotetsu was coming over. Could it be the 'them' was the other heroes, conspiring against Kotetsu for some reason? But that made no sense, what reason would the heroes have for keeping him and Kotetsu apart?

"Then… I should go get a pizza!" Keith decided. "Mr. Wild likes pizza! I like pizza, too. Do you like pizza?"

"Yes."

"Any toppings you like?"

"Pepperoni, but I'm flexible."

"Right! I'll be back soon!"

"Can't you order delivery?"

"I…" Keith froze, and Barnaby could see the gears in his head turning. "Um… They don't deliver!"

"What sort of pizza place doesn't offer delivery?"

"…The one that I'm going to!" Keith left the other groceries on the counter and picked up his keys. "I'll be back again, Mr. Barnaby! And again… again!"

_He makes even less sense than usual,_ Barnaby thought as Keith left the apartment. _And he didn't even finish cleaning up._ He nudged John away from the spaghetti sauce and swiped it up with some paper towel, throwing it out. John whined again, this time at the loss of a potential treat, so Barnaby set about scratching his ears until his tail started to wag.

Strange. All of this, very strange. But Barnaby trusted Kotetsu to explain everything once he arrived, so nothing for it but to wait.

* * *

><p>The instant Keith shut the door behind him, he alerted all the heroes with the new Call All function Agnes had set up for them.<p>

"Trouble! And again, trouble!" he insisted, and hastily explained how Kotetsu had managed to contact Barnaby, who unwittingly gave away his secret location. Now Kotetsu was on his way, still out for blood. Ivan immediately tried to apologize with his cracky voice, but Karina cut him off, reminding him that he got injured trying to stop Kotetsu, so he had already given a lot to his Team, and not everything was his fault, Mr. Samurai, _seriously_!

"_But if we're watching the main streets, how will Tiger get past us?_" Pao Lin asked.

"_He's the Crusher for Justice,_" Antonio answered. "_He's not going to care much if he's on a road or not on his way to Sky High's._"

"_So we have to get Handsome out of there, until we can make Tiger leave,_" Nathan said. "_And using Blue Rose's water trick again would be suspicious._"

"_Wait, put me on Team Three anyway!_" Karina interjected. "_I promise I won't freeze anything, but I think I can get him out of there._"

"_What's your plan?_" Antonio asked.

"_Well… I don't have one yet_," she admitted. "_But if I can get him away from the house, you guys can take on Tiger and chase him off._"

"_All right, Rose, go ahead, but be quick,_" Antonio said. "_I don't know how many of us will be able to help you once Tiger shows up."_

"_Got it. I'll be at Sky High's house soon._"

Keith nodded. "Oh, and one more thing!"

"_What?_"

"I need a pepperoni pizza!"

* * *

><p>In the silence following Keith's departure, Barnaby set up a game of 'indoor fetch.' He rolled John's tennis ball along the ground, trying to make it spin and twist around the many obstacles in Keith's living room. Then John plodded after the ball, picked it up, and returned it to Barnaby, who set it off rolling again. The game was repetitive and relaxing, and especially good at calming Barnaby's useless worries. Something strange had happened. It meant Kotetsu didn't have his call band, which the older hero <em>never<em> parted with. And the most likely suspects were the heroes themselves. But, Barnaby had no way of investigating any of his leads. He had promised Kotetsu he'd wait at Keith's house for him. It'd do him no good to worry without reason. Best wait for more information… and play with John.

The doorbell rang, and Barnaby stood to answer it. _Kotetsu's here,_ he thought. Maybe now he'd get an answer to his cryptic phone riddle. He opened the door.

"Blue Rose?" Barnaby said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

She fidgeted, brushed some hair aside, and kicked a boot against the doorstep. "Agnes said you…"

"Agnes said I what?" Was Agnes spreading the story of how Barnaby had worn women's clothing? If this news made it back to his fans, _heads would roll_!

"Just, that you were here, so…" Karina looked like she'd rather be anywhere else, but she took a deep breath and asked, "Can I talk to you?"

"I suppose," Barnaby said, stepping aside to let Karina in.

"Not here," she said. "Would you… would you go for a walk with me? Please?"

"Well, I'm waiting for Sky High to come back, and Kotetsu—"

"I promise this won't take long!" Karina cut him off. "I just need to talk to you!"

"About what?"

"Um… I'll tell you when we're walking."

Barnaby sighed. _More secrets that people refuse to discuss_. He wanted to blow her off, tell her to go away and run off to some bar where she could sing her heart out and leave him alone…

But he felt John's nose nudging at his knee, almost as if urging him out. He glanced back at the dog, once again staring at him with those same big, sad eyes.

"Fine." If Karina was 'in' on any of this mess, now would be the perfect time to interrogate her. And no doubt Kotetsu would have the good sense to wait for Barnaby at Keith's house if this took too long.

"Really? Thank you so much!" Karina turned away from the door and waved Barnaby to follow her.

"Do you even know where we're going?"

"Just for a walk. Not too far."

Barnaby shut the door behind him, patting John one last time. John woofed and panted as the door shut in front of him, and Barnaby had the odd feeling that John possessed some strange, otherworldly wisdom. That dog had some strange reactions sometimes...


	17. Desperation

"So? What did you want to discuss with me?"

"Don't rush me! Just... one more minute!"

"We've been walking for nine minutes and you haven't told me anything. In one more minute, I'm going back."

Karina grimaced. Granted, she had done well to get Barnaby away from the house at all without any plan to back her up, but the others needed more time. She had led Barnaby back to the nearby park, putting distance between themselves and the incoming danger, but Karina couldn't distract Barnaby indefinitely, and she definitely couldn't distract him for the time being without a plan. The vaguely promised something-I-need-to-tell-you excuse wouldn't last much longer, and she had no idea what to actually say. Something important enough to hold his interest, but unimportant enough that she wouldn't get caught in a lie. _Think, Karina, think!_

"How's Blue Rose? Points-wise."

"Huh?" Karina blinked as Barnaby instigated small-talk. "Oh, um, fine. Sky High's in the lead right now, but I'm doing well. Been singing more."

"How is that going?"

"Good. I'm releasing more of my own music now. The Christmas single I wrote went well, so Robert let me make an album. Still under Blue Rose's name, but it's all my songs."

"I noticed that album selling well," Barnaby said. "Is your manager pleased?"

"Sort of. He's glad that the music is popular, but I don't think he wanted to admit I was right."

"Yes, I wouldn't want to admit you're right, either."

"Jerk," Karina mumbled. _Why did I volunteer for this again?_ Because she thought she'd have an idea by now. Right.

"So does Ms. Agnes have any big plans for the First League?" Barnaby asked. "Any sort of collaboration, maybe a game, or secret test?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Some people don't deal well with boredom. I'm wary of the troubles such boredom causes for everyone around them."

_Troubles?_ Karina swallowed. Like spending all day in the ocean and not being allowed to go home? Like having to go when people tell you to even though they don't give you a good reason? Like being dragged away from a friend's house just after he gets word that another trusted friend his headed his way? Except it's a trusted friend with murder on the brain, and his _other_ trusted friends can tell him that… What to do, what to do…

"You all _are_ planning something, aren't you?"

"Wh-What in the world gave you that idea?"

Barnaby stared at her, his expression clearly stating, _Do you think I'm stupid?_ "Why else would you have brought me out here? You clearly have no idea where you're going, and also no idea what you wanted to tell me. Hero TV is planning something involving Kotetsu and myself, and we deserve to know what."

_We're not telling you for a reason!_ Karina felt her heart pound against her ribcage. If this was scary for the rest of the heroes, she'd hate to see Barnaby's reaction to the news of Kotetsu's Objective, and the fact that the heroes still had _no_ leads on fixing him.

"I… I don't know what you're talking about. That's not what _I_ wanted to talk about, I mean. You're crazy."

Barnaby sighed. "Blue Rose, for all our differences, I've always considered you at least a rational individual. Now, tell me what's going on, or I'll have to leave."

"No, I… first I need to tell you the thing!"

"The thing."

"The thing I need to tell you!" Karina nodded. "And it's way more important than Hero TV or—or any of that other stuff you're talking about!"

"Well, then out with it," Barnaby said, folding his arms. "I'll give you a count."

"No, no, I can do it without a count," Karina racked her brains for something to say.

"On three," Barnaby said anyway. "Then out with it."

_I need more time!_

"One."

_Stop counting! No, I need more time to think of something!_

"Two."

_Anything, anything, anything, anything, anything, anything, anything, ANYTHING!_

"Three."

"Uhhhm…"

Barnaby scoffed. "I knew it. Nothing." He turned and started walking away.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"Back to Sky High's house. You've wasted twelve minutes of my life, and I'm never going to forgive you for it."

"Hang on a second! Just give me two more seconds!"

"No."

_But Tiger's going to kill you!_ Karina ran after him and grabbed his arm in a vice grip.

"Let go of me," Barnaby tried to shake her off, but Karina held firm.

"No! The truth is… the thing I have to tell you is…" _First thing that comes to mind that's not murder three two one_ "I'm in love!"

Barnaby tugged again, and this time, pulled free. "That's nice."

_Why did it have to be _that_?_ "No! That's not all! I'm in love—with—_with_ _you_!"

* * *

><p>Kotetsu trudged on, fuming about the lack of good, tall buildings in Keith's neighborhood. Barely any building higher than a few stories, trees galore, absolutely nowhere to swing from, and he should save his power for when he actually had to kill Barnaby, not burn it up in the pursuit. The closest swing-able structure was a shopping mall ten minutes away, and from there, Kotetsu had to go on foot.<p>

Man, his feet hurt. And his stomach. And his face and arms. And his head. Just about everything hurt, even the Objective was starting to hurt, the endless repetition of his mission in his thoughts. Dammit, couldn't he take a break for three seconds? Just because he couldn't hear what his mission was didn't mean he'd forget it! At this rate, he'd go bonkers before he even found Barnaby.

But this would all be over soon. He found the right street, the right row of adorable little houses, the right door. He thudded his fist against it a few times.

"Bunny!" he shouted. "Bunny, I'm here! Open up! Bun-neeee!"

The lock clicked, and the door swung open.

"Bun—Oh, it's _you_."

Keith stood in the doorway, arms folded across his chest and a look of severe disapproval written across his face.

"I am ashamed of you, Mr. Wild," Keith said. "And again, ashamed!"

"What did I even do? You guys are the ones slowing me down! I thought you'd help, because we're friends!"

"We will not help you kill Mr. Barnaby!"

"You're hiding him in there, aren't you?" Kotetsu craned his neck over Keith's shoulder, calling into the house, "Bunny! You're in there, right? Come out!"

"He isn't here," Keith said. "We sent him far, far away, so you wouldn't be able to find him."

"Yeah, right," Kotetsu smirked. "Bunny said he'd be staying with you until his building got fixed. He'll be back here in a few minutes."

"No, that's not true! He's… staying somewhere else!"

"Yeah, where?"

"He's…" Keith looked down. "He's…"

"_Woah!_" Kotetsu took advantage of the moment of confusion and pushed past Keith into the house, tripping over a tennis ball—_Who left that there __**kill Bunny**?_—while he scanned the house for any sign of Barnaby.

"I didn't say you could come in!"

"But I gotta find Bunny!" Kotetsu spun around the living room, searching for any sign of his partner. Nothing in the living room, or the kitchen, for that matter. Any other rooms? Barnaby probably had all his girly creams and stuff spread out in the bathroom, proof of presence—

"Mr. Wild, get out of my house!"

"Make me, Breeze Boy!"

"_WOOF!_"

The heroes stopped and looked to John, ignored in the corner. The dog stood at resolute attention, eyes fixed on Kotetsu.

"Hey, John!" Kotetsu crouched down and offered his hand to the golden retriever. "You remember me, don'tcha? Can you tell Sky High that he's being an idiot again?"

John took three steps forward, sniffing Kotetsu's hand.

"There, good boy! Such a good boy! Do you know where Bunny is, John? Can you show me where he is?"

John kept poking his wet doggy nose around Kotetsu's hand, trying to place the smell.

"John, where's Bunny?"

The dog finally made his decision… and growled low in his throat.

"J—John?"

And he barked, lunging forward and chomping down on Kotetsu's hand. Kotetsu shouted in pain as Keith jumped to intervene, repeating the order, "No, John! No biting! No!"

The two pried off the dog's jaws, but that wasn't enough. As Kotetsu backed up, John followed, continuing to bark and jump at the bearded man, bowling over the peacekeeping Keith and finally breaking free.

"Bad dog!" Kotetsu cried over his shoulder as John chased him out the front door and into the street. "Bad, bad dog!"

John didn't listen. He sprinted after Kotetsu with all the speed he could muster, chasing the bad-smelling man as far away from his master as he could. They made quite a scene running down the street—a man in a waistcoat hanging onto his hat for dear life, an ordinarily mild-mannered golden retriever now in hot pursuit, and behind it all, a worried blonde, shouting, "Heel, John! John! HEEL, BOY!"

* * *

><p>"…Excuse me?"<p>

Karina's head spun with what she had just said. _At least he's stopped._ "You heard me," she said, a lot calmer than she felt.

"But that's impossible."

"No, it's not."

"Then why are you always asking about Kotetsu?"

"Huh?"

"Even when I was in the First League, every time I turned around you were asking, 'is _Tiger_ okay, how is _Tiger_ doing, is _Tiger_ tired, when's _Tiger_ coming back, does _Tiger_ want this water bottle I got for him…' I had thought you were in love with Kotetsu."

"I—I don't talk about him _that_ much!" Karina swallowed hard. "And I definitely don't like him or anything!"

"You're so convincing, did I ever tell you that?" Barnaby said sarcastically.

"Well… I only talk about Tiger so much because I didn't want you to find out the truth!"

"Then why are you telling me now?"

"Because I, um, I can't take it anymore! I want to be your girlfriend!"

The disgust Karina felt internally at that phrase manifested on Barnaby's face. "I'm flattered, but no, thank you. You have no idea how many of these random declarations of love I get."

"I get them, too! And you're not like them!" _Namely because they're asking me to whip and spank them, too._ "You're… you like music! I like music! And, uh, you're really handsome and cool! And—and do you have any idea how blonde our babies would be?"

Barnaby looked as if he wanted to vomit. "_Babies_?" he repeated in disbelief.

Okay, so maybe babies was pushing it, but Karina was an idol, not an actress! This improvisation stuff was hard! "Just—Just give me a chance! I swear I'm in love with you, totally!"

"Weren't you the one who swore to resist all signs of us growing closer to one another?" Barnaby reminded her, almost apprehensively, longing for her to remember that promise.

"It's not that easy! You don't choose who you fall in love with, you just do!" Karina spoke from actual experience this time. "You think I just suddenly _decided_ to have feelings for you? Moron!"

Barnaby pinched the bridge of his nose just beneath his glasses. "Look, we should discuss this later, when you're more… collected."

"No, we can't talk later!" Karina grabbed him again, this time by the shoulders. "I can't let you go until you've given me an answer!"

"My answer is no," Barnaby replied. "And if you want any chance of that answer changing, please respect my wishes and let me go and think in peace."

"No, no, no, no, we—we need to discuss this together!"

"Blue Rose, I rescind my earlier statement calling you a rational individual," Barnaby said, putting Karina's 'little bit cold' ice to shame. "Let go of me."

With only a hair more forethought than before when she first blurted out a false love declaration, Karina clung to Barnaby's shoulders and pressed her face against his. Their lips touched, technically, but so did their noses. Karina felt the metal bridge of his glasses shoving onto her own nose painfully, but she soldiered on, twisting her head a little to give the kiss an appearance of enjoyment, while her left hand…

Barnaby shoved her back, shocked and sickened. "That—that was completely uncalled for!" Barnaby scolded. "What in the world was that about?"

"I…" Karina wiped her mouth with the back of her right hand, still trying to compartmentalize and ignore what she had just done, shoving her left hand in her vest pocket. "I thought… it'd help you, y'know, decide what you felt for me?"

"It did _not!_" Barnaby snapped. "It was juvenile and—and completely absurd, and repulsive!"

"You're telling me," Karina answered, still struggling to get the taste of Barnaby off of her mouth before she actually tasted it. "That was such a terrible kiss…" With a sudden brainwave, the first idea she could genuinely call _good,_ she continued, "In fact, you're so bad at kissing that I don't love you anymore."

"…_Excuse me_?"

"You heard me," Karina repeated, struggling to stay aloof. "All that time that I had my super-secret crush on you, I was dreaming of what it would feel like to kiss you, but it definitely wasn't _that._"

"What? You just jammed your face against mine, that wasn't a kiss!"

"It was too. That was our first kiss together, and _you_ ruined it. So you don't even have to go home and think about anything, I'm over you," Karina put her un-pocketed hand on her hip.

"How are you so sure _I_ ruined it? I would say _you're_ the one who doesn't know how to kiss!"

Karina paused a moment, staring at Barnaby's indignant expression, and her eyes widened. "You're kidding, right?"

"What could I possibly be kidding about?" Barnaby counted off her offenses on his fingers. "You drag me out here, confess some twisted crush on me out of the blue, _kiss_ me, and then try to blame me for the kiss being unpleasant! Did it occur to you that the kiss was unpleasant because _you_ surprised me?"

_Is he… Is he mad that I called him a bad kisser?_ Karina fought back a grin. "I don't care if it's because you're surprised, I don't want to risk it and kiss you again," Karina shook her head. "Have you even kissed anyone before?"

"Well, have you?"

"I'm not the one who ruined that kiss!"

"_You don't know that!_" Barnaby jabbed a finger in Karina's direction. "I have been emasculated once today already, I won't let you do it to me twice! Take it back!"

"Take what back, the kiss? You can't take back a kiss, it's already happened."

"Take back what you said about my kissing!"

"I can't because it's _true._"

"It is_ not_!"

_Oh, no wonder he loves trolling people. It's so much fun._ Karina struggled not to smile and give herself away.

She milked their argument for as long as she possibly could—nearly twenty more minutes of Barnaby, flushed and frustrated, fighting to the bitter end to defend his last shreds of dignity—before she admitted, okay, maybe _if_ they kissed again, Barnaby would do a better job the second time around, but after this lengthy argument, her post-kiss assessment remained intact, at least the part about not being in love with Barnaby anymore. Even though that love was a lie from the beginning. Barnaby didn't seem very phased by the loss of that suddenly gained affection, more concerned with maintaining his assumed skill in kissing, and with his victory in the argument secured, he stormed off back to Keith's house.

Once he was out of sight, Karina finally removed her left hand from her vest pocket, where she had been clutching Barnaby's cell phone ever since she picked his pocket during the kiss. Phone still in hand, Karina tapped her call band and called everyone.

"Okay, that's all the time I can buy you," she said. "Is Tiger gone?"

"_I think so_," Pao Lin said. "_I saw Sky High and his dog chasing Tiger down the street a few minutes ago._"

Karina breathed a sigh of relief. "Good," she said, looking at Barnaby's cell phone. "Actually, Origami?"

"_Yes?_" he scratched.

"Do you think you'd be up for a little ventriloquy?"

"_Sure_," Ivan answered. "_Where are you?_"

"In the park... at the nearest water fountain," Karina grumbled, wiping her mouth once again. _I can't believe I kissed him…_ She fumed. _But if it's going to help them both be okay, it's worth it_.


	18. Discovery

After an awful lot of running, Kotetsu managed to elude John, ducking in an alley and hiding behind a dumpster. Well, he was pretty sure John would have found him, but the dog slowed down enough for Keith to catch up and grab onto his collar. Keith searched for a few minutes more, mostly by calling out "Mr. Wild!" and waiting for Kotetsu to respond, but he left quickly, probably heading back home, which was Kotetsu's biggest clue that Barnaby _was_ still at Keith's house, no matter what Keith himself insisted.

_But Sky High's either going to try and move him, or ask for reinforcements __**kill Bunny.**_ Kotetsu thought. _And I don't think Bunny was there when I came by __**kill Bunny.**_ They could have hidden him temporarily, but they'll probably start looking for a safer place for him. Maybe another hero's house. He knew where Antonio and Nathan lived, but neither of the girls, or Ivan.

_The sun's going down too, __**kill Bunny…**__ Is it really going to take me three days to finish my Objective __**kill Bunny**__?_

Kotetsu glanced down at his hand, where John had bitten him. Not too bad, some bleeding and bruising, but infection was more an issue here than pain. Kotetsu tugged on a chunk of his sleeve just above the wound, where the threads were loose from his earlier escape from captivity, and it tore off at the shoulder. One more split and Kotetsu crafted a decent-sized bandage, so he dressed the wound and made a mental note to get his hands on some alcohol as a makeshift disinfectant.

He had to check Keith's house, but be sneakier this time. If Barnaby wasn't there, try Antonio's place. Nathan's house would be a fortress, all mansion-y with an actual security system, but Kotetsu could probably use his power to get around the worst of that. It all depended on what they decided to tell Barnaby when. Agnes had used illness as an excuse, and there weren't many other reasons to stop Barnaby from meeting with him. If everything went well, Barnaby would just walk right into Kotetsu's hands—

His cell phone rang. Kotetsu fumbled trying to answer it, nearly dropping it twice with his cumbersomely bandaged hand, but he glimpsed the caller ID.

_Bunny __**kill Bunny!**_

"Bunny, where did you go? I told you to stay at Sky High's!"

"_Sorry,_" Barnaby said on the other end, audio only. "_The truth is, I've decided not to impose on Sky High's hospitality. I'm going to find a hotel in the area and stay there until my building is repaired._"

"No, no, no, Bunny, there are tons and tons of hotels! Hell, what's wrong with Sky High's place? Is it about his crazy dog?"

"…_Actually, yes, it is about the dog. We aren't getting along,_" Barnaby said. "_I forgot to bring my cell phone charger with me, so it might be a while before I can contact you again. My battery is almost dead._"

"No! Don't go! Stay at my place! It's a bit busted up, but I can give you a room! I'll give you my room! Don't go to a hotel!"

"_I don't want to impose on anyone. I'll see you at work, all right?_"

"Which hotel?" Kotetsu shouted into the phone. "Tell me, Bunny! I have to find you! Tell me!"

The call ended. Kotetsu shook the phone as if he could will the call to re-connect.

"Hey, Bunny! Bunny! Tell me, Bunny! BUNNY!"

Kotetsu grabbed his hair in frustration. 'A hotel in the area!' What kind of area was Barnaby talking about? Keith's neighborhood was almost purely permanent residences, almost no hotels to speak of. Barnaby would have to go much further, to a business district, to find any sort of hotel. Not only that, but the business district had hotels _in abundance._ And even if Kotetsu could rule out shitty motels as unsuited to his partner's tastes, he knew Barnaby didn't have any preferences when it came to price, features, or theme. Kotetsu had no idea if he was searching for his partner in an ordinary rent-a-room or a swanky presidential suite.

_**Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny!**_

_I'm TRYING, dammit!_

All right. Hotels. Not his idea of fun, not his idea of easy, but the only idea he had, period. So better get started now, hunting through every single hotel in Sternbild, asking if Barnaby Brooks Jr had decided to stay there for the night.

As the sun set and the full moon rose, Kotetsu dragged his feet onward, unable to rest until he completed his Objective.

* * *

><p>Luthor Bellisair leaned back in his chaise, swirling a deep red wine in a glass and listening to the radio news broadcast. Like a fine vintage, all the good things in life came to those who waited. So it had been three nights since he issued his Objective to Wild Tiger. Most individuals couldn't fight his power for this long, but no matter. Objectives were both irresistible and irreversible. Whatever might be standing in Tiger's way—be it object, person, or even organization or ideal—it will eventually yield. Either way, Tiger had a few more days before the Objective would completely overpower his own personality. That had only happened twice before among Bellisair's… assistants… with results that even <em>he<em> found horrifying.

No use in pondering that possibility too much. Bellisair's order was clear, and his plan unchanged. Whether Tiger killed his partner while (mostly) in his right mind or in a fit of rabid rage, it didn't matter to Bellisair. It had occurred to him during his planning stages that the death of any hero by any other hero would serve his purposes nicely, but he had too much of a 'poetic spirit' in him. No other murder would match the emotional impact of Barnaby Brooks Jr's most trusted friend and partner turning around and killing him in cold blood. Such a dramatic story, the media would never be able to resist. Even if Hero TV and the corporations tried to cover it up, it would be as if Bellisair gave an Objective to every journalist in Sternbild: _Find the truth of Barnaby Brooks Jr's murder._

Belliair sipped his wine and re-crossed his ankles. _Delicious._

Traffic, distant voices, the occasional ambulance—the sounds of Sternbild—drifted in through the glass doors to the balcony and mixed with the radio as it played irrelevant news, but Bellisair had to leave it on, waiting for the broadcast. In such a forced repose, Bellisair felt rather irritated as well, but now was a time for waiting. Reading the books he had always meant to, enjoying fine music, sampling wines and kicking back, forgetting about his subordinates and his organization and that annoying outstanding warrant. No, now was a time for waiting, patiently, for the vintage to mature.

The light in the apartment changed suddenly, an eerie blue-green glow. Bellisair looked to the balcony—a man in a distinctive pale gray cape and bared-teeth mask, eyes burning with his trademark blue fire. Bellisair watched as he raised his right hand and ignited it, pressing his hand into the pane of glass until it glowed, caved, and melted away into a red-hot puddle on the floor.

Bellisair masked a frown. _The door was unlocked. He could have opened it._ But he set aside the wine and stood to greet his guest. "Welcome, Lunatic. Forgive me if I don't shake your hand," Bellisair indicated Lunatic's hands, the right one still blazing, and the left one dragging his heavy crossbow.

"I do not shake hands with sinners," Lunatic responded.

"While I understand I'm not a shining paragon of justice such as yourself, would you mind 'cooling off' for a minute, please? I have something to discuss with you."

"_Discuss_?" Lunatic let his head flop to one side, the neck twisting a little too far to be honestly quizzical.

"I believe we can benefit from each other." Bellisair shifted to the side, being sure to prove with each move that he wasn't reaching for a weapon, and retrieved a second wine glass. "Like you, I am a NEXT. And while I won't throw my lot in with NEXT supremacists, I believe that those with power have the right to change the world as they see fit. You have the power to punish criminals with death, and since no hero has managed to stop you, you have the right to continue."

"Are you comparing my justice to your crimes?"

"Not at all," Bellisair returned to the wine table and poured the second glass. "I act with little concern for justice. I won't deny that. But I believe we have similar methods. Those who oppose us must be destroyed. My NEXT ability can do that, a power that will one day be legendary, not only to this city, but the world."

"The power to command," Lunatic said.

"Exactly," Bellisair took a step forward, offering the second glass of wine to Lunatic. The masked man stared at it—supposedly—and made no move to take it, so Bellisair set it aside. "With my power, I can order anyone to do whatever I want."

"You have ordered Wild Tiger to assassinate his partner."

"So you've heard," Bellisair smiled slowly. "Isn't it brilliant? Even in the Second League, Barnaby Brooks Jr is a cultural icon, almost a national treasure, beloved by the public. On the other hand, while Wild Tiger's trumped-up charges were dropped, he has a shadow of doubt associated with his name, along with destruction: Crusher for Justice. It's all too easy to cast one as the innocent victim and one the sinister villain."

"Brooks will die. Wild Tiger will be guilty," Lunatic picked up the narrative. "Doubt and confusion will engulf the heroes. Hero TV will be destroyed, and the cult worship of heroes will disintegrate. The mega-corporations who sponsored the heroes and sustained massive publicity campaigns to endorse them will lose credibility. Investments ruined, their stock prices will plummet, and you are prepared to buy controlling shares in as many as you like. You will dominate this city economically, and legitimately."

"So you're a smart one."

"Those with no concern for justice are simple-minded."

"Don't write me off just yet. I've left room for you in my new world."

"_Your_ new world?" Lunatic's head rolled back over his shoulders, as if he was laughing, but no mirth seeped into his voice. "You will not remake this world simply because you possess money and someone else does not."

"Ah, but you've forgotten that Hero TV is intertwined with the Justice Department. They have a special branch for processing hero arrests."

"That is true."

"And now, with all that doubt on the heroes, what do you think that means for the arrests they've accumulated over the years?" Bellisair asked. "Criminal defense lawyers will win appeals left and right because no one can sufficiently defend the heroes' right to arrest those criminals. By picking such an old hero, Wild Tiger, twelve to fifteen years worth of arrests will be under suspicion, possibly longer. The speculation might even reach the oldest heroes—Legend and his like."

Lunatic's eyes blazed, apparently trying to remind Bellisair who had the power in this conversation, but Bellisair stayed calm, unimpressed by flashy pyrotechnics. "The question remains, what do you think I will gain from your 'new world?'"

"You'll gain what you've always wanted. The thing you've sworn you've been working for since you announced your name," Bellisair replied smoothly. "With no heroes and no Justice Department, the only justice that will exist in my world… will be yours."

Bellisair paused to let that fact sink in. The flames around his eyes dissipated, and Bellisair knew he had him hooked. Now to reel him in.

"You'll be absolutely unopposed. The heroes have stood up to you for this long, doing what? Defending your targets. They've never gotten close enough for an arrest. With them out of the way, and the courts ineffectual, you'll be free to rain fire down upon your sinners as you see fit. All I ask is you give credit where it's due. Spare me."

Picking up the wine glasses, Bellisair took a step toward Lunatic, offering him the second glass once more. "I won't ask you to agree with me, or even like me. But do we have a deal, Lunatic?"

The mask tilted toward the wine, 'looking,' and then back up at Bellisair.

"You spineless wretch," Lunatic sneered. "You understand your sins but refuse to repent."

Bellisair paused. "Excuse me?"

"This world is shackled by a rotten justice, but you speak of a world with _no_ justice. I stand against you, sinful one, and all that you wish to achieve."

"What? No, that's not what I meant at all! If I destroy the heroes, no one will oppose you! That's what you want!"

"You are _mistaken_. I only obey the voice of Thanatos." Lunatic advanced, and Bellisair retreated, knocking into the table with the wine. The bottle rocked, tipped, and rolled onto the floor, bloody alcohol leaking onto the carpet.

"**O-Objective!**" Bellisair cried, activating his NEXT ability. "**Kill Barnaby Brooks Jr!**"

Lunatic's slow advance continued. "I will not succumb to your manipulation."

Bellisair's blood ran cold. _Is that mask blocking my power?_ With no other options, he continued shouting, "**Objective! Kill the heroes! Objective, go home! Kill yourself! Objective, Objective! Get away from me! **_**Objective!**_"

Lunatic backhanded Bellisair's wrists, and the wine glasses fell as well, shattering to pieces. "But, I have agreed to defer your judgment… So instead, you will _answer me_."

Lunatic's hollow eyes ignited with two bursts of blue light, and Bellisair howled as the flames rose.


	19. Possibility

Antonio—or, judging by the enormous suit of olive-green armor, Rock Bison—stared at the upper levels of the apartment building, engulfed in flame. The fire broke out just an hour ago, and though firefighters surrounded him, blasting high-powered hoses at the flaming structure, they had yet to tame the blaze. Karina was nearby, helping, shooting ice at the inferno, but most of it boiled away into water vapor before it could douse anything. Pao Lin and Nathan were helping civilians evacuate, and with Keith on guard duty for Barnaby and Ivan resting—the nasty bruises blooming around his neck, like a handprint necklace, caused the others to out-vote and force him into mandatory absence—they had four heroes to fight a fire this hot.

And when the fire was this hot, it usually meant one thing: Lunatic had struck.

As his technicians readied the dreaded Hero-Pult, Antonio studied the blaze. Their agreement with Lunatic, capture Bellisair alive, still held effect, right? Had Lunatic found their man? Was this just another criminal, one of Lunatic's casualties, unrelated to Bellisair? And why in the world would Lunatic agree to help them, anyway? There was that one moment during the Maverick incident where Lunatic had stood between Kotetsu and the Wild Tiger android, correctly identifying Kotetsu as innocent. But never again had Lunatic defended anyone. He never spared people, either. He even killed the mind-wiped Maverick, deciding that even if he presented absolutely no threat to anyone, he just shouldn't be alive anymore. And what could Lunatic give as security on his promise? What does a serial killer swear by? Fire? The moon? Lunatic pulling a line as corny as "I swear by the moon" didn't sit right with Antonio.

One of the Kronos technicians approached him. "We're ready."

Antonio nodded. _Time for the part of the job I hate._

He clambered up the side of the monstrous catapult and affixed his feet on top of the yellow footprints, staring face-down at the hunk of steel about to launch him into the air. _I'm going to be taking the stairs down, why the hell can't I take them up?_ But, the hum of a Hero TV helicopter answered his question for him. Shooting people out of giant people-cannons 'made for better TV.'

"Rock Bison, are you ready?"

He's never ready, but Antonio always just says 'yes' in the bravest voice he can manage that day, and the technicians push _launch._ He stopped screaming after the first few seasons because his boss complained that it completely ruined his Bull Tank image, but that doesn't stop the internal panic, an extremely loud extremely profane collection of swears, prayers, interjections, and obvious yet bone-chillingly terrifying thoughts like 'I am in the air' and 'this is really high' and 'Gravity makes things fall.'

But he landed on the flame-weakened roof, which crumbled under the impact of Antonio's armor, depositing him in the penthouse apartment. He took a minute to get his bearings, before scanning around the room. Fire, and a lot of it, from blazing furniture to crackling pieces of the collapsed roof. He heard a choked whimper of pain.

"Hello? Can you here me?" Antonio shouted into the wreckage. "This is a rescue! Stay calm, I'm coming!"

He took two steps forward when a figure behind a toasted chaise lounge stood up, shoulders hunched and arms hanging loose. Antonio instantly recognized everything: the suit, the mask, the stance.

"Lunatic!" _Just as we thought._

Lunatic's face flopped in his direction. "Rock Bison," he identified the hero. "I believe you were looking for this man."

He reached down and dragged up a sorry figure of a man, face pale and contorted in the firelight, wearing the tattered remains of a charred suit… and completely missing an arm. His body twitched, and he cried aloud again, and Antonio saw the missing arm had been burned clean off, leaving nothing but a short stump just above where his elbow had been.

"Am I awarded points now, for the arrest of Luthor Bellisair?" Lunatic taunted. "If I do this often enough, will I become the King of Heroes, the champion of your false justice?"

"What have you done to him?" Antonio demanded.

Lunatic tossed the body Antonio's way. Bellisair whimpered as he landed at Antonio's spiked boots. Lunatic hadn't stopped at Bellisair's arm—he had burned his legs, too, though the crispy flesh stayed intact and leg-shaped.

"I incapacitated him."

"And… the arm?"

"He took too long to answer my questions. The loss of that arm was his punishment."

"You sick bastard!" Antonio shouted. "You can't just stop at murder, are you going to torture your victims, too, huh?" The mental image burned in his brain: a single flame, small and hot, like the tip of a blowtorch, gradually burning away the living appendage, finger by finger, up to the palm, wrist, forearm, elbow, into ash, with Bellisair all the while conscious, the wound burned shut with the very flame eating away at his flesh…

"As negotiated by the hero Origami Cyclone, Bellisair is alive. I promised nothing else."

"And why do you suddenly care about taking people alive?"

"I will admit my understanding of you heroes has changed," Lunatic flipped his head to the other side. "While you are servants of a false justice, you yourselves are inherently just. It is against my justice to allow the just to commit acts of evil in the name of another evil, and therefore, I must stop the evil one responsible."

"…Huh?"

"I am willing to protect Wild Tiger. Are you going to deny my assistance when both his life and the life of his partner are at stake?"

Antonio gritted his teeth. So this was the decision Ivan had been faced with. "Fine," he growled. "What did he tell you?"

"Bellisair is a command-type NEXT. He gives people Objectives that they _must_ complete. These Objectives are delivered through direct eye contact, and must have quantified ends. 'Kill this man' is quantified, 'defend me' is not. He can only issue one Objective per person, and they cannot be undone."

"Can't be undone? But we have—"

"—To make Tiger come to his senses? Impossible," Lunatic said. "He has an Objective. Bellisair claims he's tried to remove Objectives before, but nothing worked."

"There has to be another way! If we had more time, or—"

"There is no more time. The Objective eventually wears away all sense of self. Wild Tiger has differentiated between friend and foe until this point, but soon, anyone who stands in his way will be destroyed. It takes a week from the time the Objective was given before Bellisair's power reaches that point."

Antonio clenched his fists. _Almost half our time is gone_. "No… We can't just give up on him!"

Kotetsu would never give up on any of them. When Lunatic first appeared, Kotetsu fought the inferno to rescue the very criminals he was supposed to arrest, because a hero saved lives. When Jake terrorized the city, he masked his pain and went out to fight anyway because he still had breath in his body. When Antonio and the other heroes had fallen to Maverick's manipulation, Kotetsu never stopped believing in them, and their bonds… Well, that might be a bad example; even though Kotetsu never stopped believing, it wasn't the faith that broke the brainwashing, that was—

"He can only give one Objective to each person," Antonio repeated. "Is that why he can't cancel them?"

"Possibly," Lunatic swayed a little.

"So if someone else gave Tiger an Objective, would it cancel the first one?"

"Possibly," Lunatic repeated, swaying the other direction. "But where will you find another command-type NEXT within a few days?"

Antonio smiled behind his helmet. "Lunatic. As a thank you, and in honor of my friend, I'll give you one minute to run away. Sixty seconds." For emphasis, he punched his fists together, and the drills on his shoulders spun.

Lunatic rolled his head, flashing his teeth in Antonio's direction, the closest approximation of a smile that frozen mask could achieve. "I see you have made your decision. Then, I will permit you to pursue your justice."

With a flash of green fire, Lunatic vanished. Antonio stopped the drills, scooped up Bellisair's torched body, and flung him over his armored shoulder, before turning for the exit and busting through it. The man moaned in pain, a pathetic sound to match his pathetic soul.

'_I'll permit you,' my ass… He's the one running away._

He found the stairs quickly and ran down in endless circles, each half-flight taking only two steps. He had his answer. The key to all of this—a key that might not even work, no one's ever done it before, he had no idea—but a chance! Their one chance to get everything back to normal, to stop Kotetsu and save Barnaby.

Finally, Antonio burst from the building in a shower of concrete—thank God they never gave damage fines for breaking burning buildings. He saw the other heroes gathered near the ambulances, and they ran to meet him, shouting his name.

"It's Bellisair," Antonio shrugged, indicating the burned man. "Lunatic… he tortured him, but he got good answers. I know how to fix Tiger."

"_HOW_?" the Girls Team demanded.

"We need to give Tiger a new Objective to complete. Something that doesn't involve murder. Then when he finishes the new Objective, he might forget about the old one."

"Might?" Karina said. "You're not sure? And why would Bellisair help us by giving Tiger a new Objective?"

"He actually can't. Can only use his power on a person once. So we need one more hero to give the new Objective," Antonio answered. "Fire Emblem, how fast can you drive?"

"As fast as I want, Sweetcheeks~…"

"The trains have stopped running by now, but you have to get to Oriental Town. Find Tiger's family."

"Why do we need his family?" Pao Lin asked.

Karina clapped her hands to her mouth. "You're kidding! Bison, that's brilliant!"

"Wha-at?" Pao Lin pouted, left out.

"Tiger's daughter, Kaede! She's a copy NEXT! If she copies Bellisair's power, then she can give Tiger a new Objective!"

"Now that we're all on the same page, time is running short!" Nathan ran off to his car, and barely a few seconds later, pulled it around to talk to the heroes. "You'll send me the exact address along the way, right~?"

Antonio nodded. "Get going!"

And the car zoomed off, leaving Antonio, Pao Lin, and Karina behind.

"I can't believe we didn't think of this sooner," Karina shook her head.

"We didn't know enough about Bellisair's powers. Don't beat yourself up for it. Bellisair needs a hospital, anyway, and we can't do anything until Fire Emblem gets back."

"Let's use my transport!" Pao Lin volunteered. "We won't all fit in a normal ambulance."

"Good idea," Antonio hefted Bellisair and followed the young hero to the Odysseus van.

"Hey, Bison," Karina asked. "How far away is Tiger's hometown?"

"Five hours by train. Round-trip is ten."

"So it's going to take Fire Emblem ten hours to get Kaede?"

"Ten hours by _train_," Antonio corrected. "Fire Emblem will be back before we can blink."


	20. Isolation

Blankets tented over her head, Kaede flipped through the pages of her well-loved Barnaby book—the one Barnaby himself had signed and personalized _just_ for her—by the light of a forbidden flashlight. She knew every word in that book by heart, cover to cover, but she loved reading it again and again, studying the pictures and graphs and logos, all the ins and outs of Barnaby's daily routine, his workplace, his likes and dislikes, and the secrets to his incredible success.

She paused at a page that charted Barnaby's points against the other heroes, a line graph of the 1977-1978 season entitled "Rookie King." It was obviously meant to showcase Barnaby's meteoric rise to King of Heroes, pointing to his red line with a little crown at the end when it exceeded Sky High's blue, but the graph represented all the heroes, not just the two front runners. Kaede pressed the tip of her finger against the neon green one, the Wild Tiger line, and traced it. For a whole month, it lay at the bottom of the graph like a slug, scoring no points. And then somewhere around October, he started picking up a rescue or two, always going for the rescue rather than the arrest, as Barnaby nabbed the criminals and scored double points. An angry black stripe interrupted all the lines around January: Ouroboros and the Seven Matches. Three lines—Sky High's, Rock Bison's, and Wild Tiger's—had red 'x' marks deposited on top of their lines to signify defeat at the hands of Jake Martinez, while the publishers gave Barnaby a gold star for his victory. Then the lines continued, but Kaede kept her finger on the Wild Tiger line as it started climbing in tandem with Barnaby's, crossing the other persistent low-scorers and even overtaking Fire Emblem and Dragon Kid.

_That's when they started acting like real partners._ Kaede smiled and traced the green line a few more times, before flipping back to the cover and looking at Barnaby's signature. "To Kaede," and then lower, his name, in big loopy letters. She remembered her father's lie—one of thousands—that he had stood all night in a signing line to get the book for her. Kaede used to imagine what that must have been like: her poor father, standing alone in a crowd of people, maybe outside in the wind or the rain, inching forward every few hours, and then that fleeting moment with her favorite hero in the world as her father struggled to explain exactly how much this meant to him, how much it meant to Kaede, how much Kaede meant to him. And of course, Barnaby had been wise and understanding, and given Kotetsu the perfect bit of advice, which changed every time Kaede imagined it based on her own struggles, from homework to friendships to wishing her dad back into her life.

About a month after Wild Tiger: One Minute returned to active duty, Kaede and Kotetsu had a big fight about Kaede moving to Sternbild. Somehow it hadn't even crossed Kotetsu's mind that his daughter, with her supercharged NEXT ability, wanted to enroll in Hero Academy so she could become a hero and save people just like her dad. Kotetsu 'expressed concern' that his twelve-year-old daughter would rather go toe-to-toe with thieves, kidnappers, and murderers than finish middle school, which eventually resulted in a shouting match, including such wonderful statements as, "Kaede, I am your father, and you'll do as I say!" and "I don't have to listen to a stupid liar like you!"

Not their finest moment.

After a stern lecture from Anju, Kaede understood (a little) more about the dangers that Kotetsu wanted to protect her from, and the importance of having a good education and mostly-normal group of friends. The scolding made Kaede feel half her age, but she perked up when she heard her grandma talking on the phone with Kotetsu in the same no-nonsense tone, presumably explaining Kaede's own feelings on Kotetsu being a hero: she's a good girl who wants to help others, imitation is sincere flattery, she wants something to strengthen their relationship.

Frankly, Kaede didn't know if that's really what she felt about the situation. Her opinion of Wild Tiger had definitely changed when the truth came to light: for one, all those lies and broken promises made so much more sense, knowing her dad was a hero. Then Anju explained a bit about how hero contracts worked; only a few people in all of Apollon knew Kaede even existed, and fewer still cared if Kotetsu got to spend time with her, uninterrupted by emergencies. And it wasn't like the robbers on Hero TV planned their heists to deliberately interrupt Kaede and Kotetsu's plans (though sometimes it felt like they did). She wasn't happy her dad had lied, but now that she knew about his life as a hero, she wanted to be a part of it. Rather than wishing for her dad to quit his job and come home, _she_ wanted to quit Oriental Town and go to Sternbild, and join the world of Hero TV.

Eventually, they worked out a deal: Kaede had to finish middle school in Oriental Town. Then she could move to Sternbild, go to Hero Academy for high school, and live with Kotetsu, who would give her with miscellaneous training and help her solicit a sponsor. Even though Kaede might be as old as eighteen years old when she finally became a hero—which was _so old!_—she had Kotetsu's word that he would let her do as she wanted. He probably hoped that by the time she turned eighteen, she'd lose interest in heroics and choose a more normal job.

(But just in case her interest held, Kaede went an extra step further and made Muramasa sign a paper as a witness to Kotetsu's promise, and sent copies of the promise to Mr. Ben and Antonio asking them to pester her dad a _lot_ if she wasn't living in Sternbild by the time she was fifteen, but Kotetsu didn't have to know that.)

Someone rapped sharply on the door. "Kaede, I see the flashlight. Go to bed."

"Sorry, Uncle," Kaede clicked off the flashlight, closed the Barnaby book, and slid it onto her bedside table. She waited until she heard his footsteps leave, and then stared at the box-shaped blob of book.

Her dad hadn't waited bravely in a giant signing line for the chance to tell Barnaby Brooks Jr about his daughter. No, the real story was much more ordinary, but at the same time, infinitely more awesome. Rather than the usual rain-sleet-snow signing line story, Kaede invented a new scenario for Barnaby and Kotetsu, a tiny (and admittedly self-centered) daydream that she entertained because it was just too fascinating not to dream about. Their conversation would have gone like this:

Her dad, starting with a friendly, _"Hey, Bunny, I'm taking some time off to visit my family. Would you mind signing a copy of your book for me?"_

To which Barnaby would say, _"I would not mind at all, Kotetsu. Who am I signing for?"_

And Kotetsu would explain, _"My daughter, Kaede. She's a_ huuuuge _fan of yours."_

And instantly Barnaby would respond, _"Ah, I remember. The beautiful, intelligent, wonderful young lady you talk about constantly who inspires you to protect the citizens of Sternbild?"_

Kotetsu would laugh and say, _"That's the one! Once I stop being a scaredy-tiger and tell her that I'm actually a hero, we should all go get ice cream together!"_

Which would make Barnaby smile and say, _"Since your daughter is such a loyal fan of mine, and since I'm such a good friend of yours, I would love to go out for ice cream with you both!"_

And then Kaede would get an enormous hot fudge sundae with caramel and sprinkles and chocolate chips and cherries and it'd be the most delicious sundae in the entire world. And then she'd have spoon-fights with Kotetsu as he tried to steal bites from her masterpiece. She fully expected Barnaby to take her dad's side and dig up a spoonful on Kotetsu's behalf while her back was turned; or maybe he wouldn't, and he'd berate Kotetsu for trying to eat his daughter's dessert, a perfectly mannered gentleman. If Barnaby took her side, Kaede might just feel sorry for Kotetsu and negotiate a fair trade anyway, so he wouldn't feel like both his daughter _and_ partner hated him.

_Man, that's going to be the best day ever._ Kaede thought, curling up with her teddy bear. _Dad. And Barnaby. And ice cream.  
><em>

The house settled: wooden beams creaking, water gurgling through the pipes, crickets outside. Kaede struggled to calm her sparking imagination so she could get some sleep, but her eyes just refused to close. Her dream had her all hyped up and raring to go, ready to do something, be somewhere—

What was that flash of light?

Kaede sat upright in bed and stared out her window at the mountainside. Sometimes car headlights cut through her curtains as it navigated the switchback roads down the mountain, but never that bright, and never that suddenly. Flipping off the covers, Kaede padded over to the window and peeked around the curtains. She could see the light clearly, zooming down the mountainside at a speed that should have crashed an ordinary car. The light coming their way.

Kaede opened the door and bolted down the hall to Muramasa's room. Her uncle stood in the center of his room, just tugging on a t-shirt to sleep in.

"There's a car on the road, coming toward us!" Kaede announced. "And it's really fast! I've never seen anything like it!"

Muramasa stared at her. "A car."

"Yeah! It was on the side of the mountain, its headlights lit up my room, and I watched it, and I've never seen a car take those turns so fast!"

"What makes you think the car is coming to us?"

"You think it's going to the Yoshida's?"

"Why not?"

Kaede stopped for a second. "I… I don't know. I guess it could be going there."

Muramasa sighed. "Go back to bed."

"But what about—"

"No buts. You've stayed up way too late already. Go to bed."

Kaede turned away—_ grown-ups stay up all night, why can't I?_—and left Muramasa's room, plodding back down the hall, when she suddenly thought of a compromise and dashed back. "Can I wait by the front window for five minutes? Just for five minutes to see if it's coming to us!"

"Kaede, go to bed."

"Please? What's five more minutes going to do?"

"No."

"Pleeease?"

"_No._"

Kaede frowned. Muramasa never gave her anything when she begged, not like her dad. Well, Kotetsu had issues of his own, but in that moment, as Kaede pleaded for the right to stay up just five more minutes after her already long-gone bedtime, she wished she was talking to her dad. Because he totally would have let her stay up. Reason number eight to live with Kotetsu.

"It was going fast enough, if it was coming to us it'd be here in, like—"

"_No,_" Muramasa upheld his previous decision and started shooing Kaede out of the room. "Go to bed."

"But—"

"_No_. Go to bed before you wake up Grandma."

"But—!"

"No buts. I've told you, go to…"

Muramasa trailed off as he noticed a strange humming sound. Kaede heard it too, and listened as it grew louder, revving, getting closer.

"It _is_ coming here!" Before Muramasa could say another word, Kaede bolted to the front hall, pushed aside the sliding door and ran into the courtyard. The street glowed in the light the approaching headlights, the air filled with the sound of a super-charged engine. Within a few seconds, a blazing red sports car swung around the corner and stopped right in front of the Kaburagi house.

"Woah…" Kaede breathed, looking the car over from nose to tail. As long as Muramasa's van, but sleek and low, painted with streaks of yellow flame and bearing logos for Helios Energy. The driver slid out from behind the wheel with an elegant kick of his red high heels and a swish of his flickering cape. "Fire Emblem!"

"Good evening, Kaburagi family," Fire Emblem curtsied slightly with his cape, and Kaede looked over her shoulder. Muramasa had followed her out the door. "I hope you've been having a _lovely_ night."

"Yeah," Kaede nodded, still distracted by the super-car. Even though her dad and Barnaby were her favorite heroes of all time, Fire Emblem's car was _so super cool._

"Why are you here?" Muramasa asked.

"Well, you're right this isn't a social call," Fire Emblem folded one arm across his chest and rested the opposite elbow on his hand. "The heroes are facing an emergency at the moment, and we'd like to borrow Miss Tiger to help us out."

Kaede blushed a bit. _Miss Tiger._ She liked the sound of that.

"Why do you need Kaede?"

"We just captured a criminal NEXT who's been causing us a _world_ of trouble. In order to undo what he's done, we need another person with his same NEXT power."

"And I can copy powers!" Kaede exclaimed. "Oh, please, can I go, Uncle? Please, please, please, please?"

Muramasa frowned. "You should be going to bed. You stayed up reading."

"But _Uncle_! The heroes need me!"

"If this influences your decision," Fire Emblem interjected. "I'd like to mention that the heroes would not have decided to ask for Miss Tiger's help if we thought there was _any_ chance of solving this problem without her."

"She's a child," Muramasa answered.

"Perhaps I could explain while Miss Tiger packs her things? Time is of the essence."

"Packs? How long will she be gone?"

"Barely any time at all. But she should have some essentials with her, just in case."

"I'll go pack right now!" Kaede decided. "Fire Emblem, convince him by the time I get back!"

"Sure thing, sweetie~!"

Kaede raced back into the house, back into her room, dumped the contents of her backpack on the floor, and started re-packing it with supplies. The reading flashlight. A shirt. A sweater. Pants. Oh, underwear, too. Pen and paper, never know when you're going to need that. And her cell phone. She was still bankrupt from the last time she went to Sternbild, but she had a free ride waiting for her…

_I'm going to get to ride in Fire Emblem's car!_ Kaede's hands trembled with excitement. _Coolest! Emergency! Ever!_

* * *

><p>Outside, Muramasa stared at the flamboyant hero, who stood a little straighter now that the young Hero TV fan was gone.<p>

"What's this all about?" Muramasa asked. "Kotetsu would never ask for Kaede to come help him. You've gone over his head."

"Tiger's head is not to be trusted at the moment," Nathan said, and he hastily explained Bellisair's power, Kotetsu's Objective, and their current plan to stop the mind-controlled hero. He took pains to emphasize to Muramasa that Kotetsu had absolutely no choice to disobey the Objective, and couldn't be blamed, though that did not absolve the heroes of the responsibility to stop him at all costs.

"When did this start?"

"Day three is just beginning."

"He's been crazy for three _days_?"

"We've tried everything to stop him," Nathan reassured him. "But we've reached the end of what we can do. Which, as it happens, is only the beginning of what Tiger's daughter can do."

Kaede appeared again, dressed in her clothes from that day: sneakers, stockings, shorts, shirt, and vest. Her backpack bounced on her shoulders, and she struggled to hold onto a hairbrush and handful of hair clips simultaneously. A few bobby pins fell, and she had to pause and gather them up.

"Ready!" she announced. "So can I go, Uncle?"

Muramasa sighed, and gave in. "Fine."

Kaede and Nathan cheered and thanked the elder Kaburagi brother, before packing Kaede into the super sports car.

"Watch your speed. Kotetsu will murder _you_ if you crash with Kaede in the car," Muramasa reminded Nathan.

"Oh, I'm well aware he would," Nathan answered.

"Hey, Uncle!" Kaede called, stuffing her backpack behind the passenger seat. "Tell Grandma where I am, okay?"

"I will."

"And tell all my friends where I am, too! Tell them the _truth_!" She hopped into the side of the car and grappled with the seat belt. "Tell them I'm going to go save the heroes of Hero TV! And I'll have autographs for everyone when I come back!"

Muramasa shook his head as Nathan leaned over and assisted Kaede in the correct configuration of belts and buckles, a complex net of safety features. "I will, sure."

With the belts in place, Nathan sat back behind the wheel and started the engine. It roared to life, and drowned out the happy squeal that Kaede would probably deny uttering at a later date.

"I promise," Nathan told Muramasa. "We'll bring her home safe."

"You better."

With a burst of power, the car shot out onto the street and turned the corner. Muramasa could just see the tips of Kaede's fingers as she threw her hands in the air.

Yes, Fire Emblem promised to bring Kaede back safely. But Muramasa noticed that he failed to make any promises about Kotetsu coming home safely.


	21. Determination

Most people assumed he was a drunken hobo—tattered, unwashed, and reeking of strong liquor. Others thought he was a mental patient, with his thousand-yard stare, gritted teeth, and purposeful stumble. Some wondered if he was a fugitive on Hero TV, and just let him pass, assuming the heroes would collect him soon. A few late-night partiers wanted to know where _he_ had been, because damn, that must have been a mad rave. And a young boy, just arriving at his hotel with his parents to see this man arguing with the bellhop, wondered if he was the Wolfman, changed back into a human after a long night of howling at the moon.

Kotetsu himself did not think any of these things. He could barely get a thought in edgewise between _**Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny!**_ Pushing back against his Objective in order to display some semblance of normality felt like holding a tidal wave at bay, but he had to hold on.

Hotel. Barnaby was staying at a hotel. Kotetsu had been to dozens of hotels, and a few apartment buildings advertising short-term leases, demanding the front desk to tell him if Barnaby Brooks Jr had checked in. A few poor souls tried to reason with him, saying they couldn't give out the personal information of their residents, and besides, if a famous hero _was_ staying at their hotel, they would probably be mobbed with paparazzi. Kotetsu tried to insist he had to see Barnaby _right now_, and if he was here, they had to tell him, but that always led to the person at the desk asking about how Kotetsu had injured his hand and torn his clothes. With his head too noisy—_**Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny!**_—to craft an appropriate lie, Kotetsu told the story of how his friends tied him up, and he escaped, and then a dog attacked him. This made the hotel representative even less likely to want to let Kotetsu into their premises, and a few short minutes later, he's forced out either by hotel staff or security. Wild Tiger would have had a legitimate claim to see Barnaby, but Kotetsu didn't have his mask with him. He'd compromise his secret identity, and no one had any reason to believe the chewed-up old man wandering the streets was a hero.

_**Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny!**_

_Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny._

Every so often, Kotetsu tried calling Barnaby's phone again, but it always went straight to voicemail, just as Barnaby had warned—the battery must have died. Nevertheless, Kotetsu leaves a few words sometimes: "I told you not to leave… until I got there…" "Bunny, where are you? I'm searching all over…" "I can't stop. I have to… can't stop…"

Pain compounded. Everything demanded his attention all at once, got overruled by the Objective, and screamed all the louder just to compete with the absolute command. His vodka-soaked hand stung every time Kotetsu twitched his fingers, his shirt leaking alcohol into the wound and renewing the burn all over again. His stomach clawed at the rest of his insides, blazing with hunger. He hadn't had anything to eat since that box of nutrition-less oatmeal-cream cookie things over twenty-four hours ago, and then a little water since then. Then his feet ached with walking, his skin cried with scrapes and bruises, and deep inside him, exhaustion weighed down on his shoulders like a mountain.

But, priorities. Finish the Objective. Then Kotetsu could sleep and eat and see doctors, or even just keel over dead if he wanted to. But the Objective came first.

_**Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny!**_

Another hotel kicked Kotetsu out after telling him that they aren't allowed to give out personal information about their residents. Nothing he hasn't heard before. It crossed his mind that none of these hotels were telling him that Barnaby _wasn't_ staying there. He should just force his way in and search the hundreds and hundreds of rooms individually, to be absolutely certain Barnaby wasn't in any of them, but Kotetsu knew he'd get sent to jail that way. It'd be like when his friends tied him up at home, only worse. There won't be a watch-release pin if he's in jail. There'll be surveillance, too, and maybe worst of all, sedatives. They might give him drugs to make him weak, take away his ability to fight, so even using Hundred Power would just put him on the same level as a normal person. And then he'd rot away in a cell unable to think of anything but '_kill Bunny __**Kill Bunny!**__ kill Bunny'_ and completely powerless to make any attempt at his Objective and going absolutely insane… Absolutely… Absolutely… Insane…

The next hotel didn't even let Kotetsu get to the front desk. He violated some sort of 'dress code' of theirs, so they forced him out, ignoring his screams for Barnaby, and dumped him on the curb.

Hang on. Barnaby had said on the phone he'd be at work tomorrow. Kotetsu still needed to search for his hotel—because he can't stop, no rest, complete the Objective and then he can rest—but if dawn broke and he failed to find Barnaby, then back to Apollon for the third time, where his ID would let him in and he could find Barnaby's desk and _**Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny!**_

The world wobbled. Or did Kotetsu roll his ankle? The people walking by looked like fish—yeah, fish—swimming along and darting away whenever Kotetsu approached, heading downstream as Kotetsu fought his way up. And the wiggly lines all over the place, the dark colors at the edge of his vision, that had to be water, right? He was underwater. Swimming against the current. Wait, if he was underwater, why was he able to breathe?

Nope. Now that Kotetsu tried it, he couldn't breathe. Must be the water.

**Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny!**

_Kill Bunny. Kill Bunny… Kill… kill… him… Bunny…_

Gravity introduced Kotetsu's face to the pavement. With some more pain.

_Bunny…_

Bunny…

* * *

><p>The doctors listened to the heroes' warnings, and took precautions. They had a few pairs of sunglasses on hand meant for the blind, large frames with thick black lenses designed to block all light and hide their blank eyeballs. Sighted people wearing the glasses can't see a thing, and even unconscious, Bellisair wears a pair of those glasses as the doctors operate on him, tending to his charred legs and arm stump.<p>

The heroes waited in a sparse salon next to the operating room with a few plastic chairs and a table, and most importantly, a window to the adjacent room so the heroes could monitor the surgery and respond if anything went wrong. Ivan had joined the heroes who responded to the fire that evening, a little better rested despite the bruises, spreading a hospital blanket over the sleepy Pao Lin and fetching coffee from the machine down the hall for Antonio and Karina. They explained what Lunatic told them; eye contact, quantified ends, one Objective per person; along with their plan to use Kaede to issue a new Objective and override Bellisair's.

"Can we test that?" Ivan asked, his voice improved but still raspy. "Once Tiger-chan arrives, she could give an easy, harmless Objective, and we'll see if it cancels."

Antonio shook his head slowly. "Bellisair would have to give the second Objective. Or the first one. The doctors don't know when he's going to wake up, even if we could trust him."

"I see," Ivan looked down at the floor.

"So Kaede copies his power," Karina mused. "And then she can't touch anyone else between when she touches Bellisair and when we find Tiger." She sighed. "And all of us are NEXTs. Just tapping her on the shoulder is going to make her copy our power, and get rid of Bellisair's."

"Do we have any non-NEXTs who could help her?"

"Agnes-san," Ivan said. "But she's done everything she can to keep Barnaby away from Tiger-san. I don't think—"

"Origami, I don't want to be rude, but it sounds really painful when you talk," Karina interrupted. "You should take it easy, for your own good."

"But I have something to say."

"Could you… write it down?"

"On what?"

Karina groaned and jammed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Forget I said anything! It was a dumb idea!"

"I think I know what you mean, Origami," Antonio continued. "Agnes is Team Three, keep Barnaby away from Tiger. Now we're talking about a Team Four, get Kaede to Tiger. We'd be splitting her attention too much, and she's done so much for us already. I think she can get Barnaby out of the office for one more day, but after that, Apollon is losing too much money, and we'd have to officially declare an emergency, and that means Barnaby finding out his partner's out to kill him. Is that what you were saying?"

Ivan nodded.

"So Team One is done, we found Bellisair," Karina said, trying not to look at the window to the operation room. "Team Two is more like 'find Tiger' now. And then Team Three is still going to be keep Barnaby away from Tiger. And then Team Four, Kaede's team… How are we going to split up this time?"

"Who knows?" Antonio said, taking a swig of the cheap coffee.

The door slid open, revealing Nathan, still dressed in his full Fire Emblem costume, and Kaede. The heroes (barring Pao Lin, lying asleep on the chairs) instantly brightened at her presence.

"Kaede!"

"You got her!"

"Fire Emblem, you drove a ten-hour round trip in four hours?"

Nathan pulled back his cowl and winked at Karina. "My car's not just for show, honey~."

Kaede tried to smile at the heroes, but the window to the operating room immediately caught her attention. She crossed to it and put her hand on the glass, staring at Bellisair. The doctors had finished the bulk of their work; a single nurse cleared away their tools, settling up Bellisair for the long haul.

"That's the man who did this?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," Nathan replied, unfastening his cape as well and folding it neatly on a chair. The three heroes approached him, and he reassured them that Kaede knew everything—he had told her in the car, and she accepted this situation and her role as best she could be expected to. The heroes understood this was the second time in just two years that Kaede has come to Sternbild because her father was in trouble, because someone with power wanted to stomp on people's lives for his own gains.

After a minute, she turned away from the window. "Where's my dad?"

"Well…" Karina began. "He thinks that Barnaby is in a hotel, so he's probably checking those…"

"You don't know where he is," Kaede called Karina out, accustomed to Kotetsu's similar roundabout excuses.

"It was the best we could do!" Karina defended. "We might not know where he is, but he doesn't know where Barnaby is, either. That bought us time to find Bellisair and get you."

"Then where's Barnaby?"

"With Sky High."

Kaede glanced back at Bellisair, hands drifting up to hug her elbows. "This wasn't what I thought you needed me for at all. When you said there was an emergency... I thought it was going to be something cool."

"We're sorry," Antonio said, and Kaede sniffed a little, holding back any number of feelings.

"Do you have a plan?" she asked, and they reviewed the 'Team' structure that had served them thus far, with the necessity to build Team Two, find Kotetsu, Team Three, keep Barnaby away from Kotestu, and Team Four, get Kaede to Kotetsu, which needed Team Two to find Kotetsu first. Bellisair wouldn't be movable for at least a week, but by then, it would be too late, so they had to minimize the chance of Kaede accidentally touching other NEXTs. Even if they kept the other heroes from touching her, but you could never tell who was a NEXT. Kaede might brush up against someone on the street and end up with the ability to talk to plants while losing the crucial command power.

They eventually decided Team Four was grounded. Kaede and Antonio would get a room at the hotel nearby that served the families of current patients, so that once they got the call Kotetsu had been located, Kaede could touch Bellisair and Antonio could shove everyone out of her way. Team Three was Keith for the night and Agnes for the next morning, and Team Two would be everyone else, combing the city for signs of Kotetsu, starting with hotels in Keith's neighborhood.

The heroes, sleep-deprived and generally drained, split up left the room, preparing to tackle this nightmare again in the morning. Antonio patted Kaede on the shoulder and turned to leave, but she reached up and grabbed his hand.

"Wait," Kaede said. "I want to talk to him."

"Who?"

"Bellisair."

"He's unconscious."

"Then… I'll talk at him."

Antonio looked at the backs of the departing heroes, but then fished out his mirrored sunglasses. "You should wear these, just in case," he said, handing them to Kaede. The enormous, adult-man glasses hung loosely her face, but covered her eyes. "Do you want me to be there with you?"

"It's fine. You can stay here."

"All right."

Antonio watched her go, thinking over how little he actually knew about Kotetsu's daughter. He had known about her birth, saw all the baby pictures—because Kotetsu would not shut up about his new daughter—but Antonio was sort of a double taboo in Kaede's life, both by being an adult that Kotetsu usually hung out with while consuming alcohol, and by being a hero. Tomoe and Kotetsu had made the decision together to leave 'Wild Tiger' out Kaede's life, give her a normal childhood before easing her into the danger and risk of Hero TV. Antonio didn't mind not being ultra-involved in this little baby's infancy. He didn't consider himself good with kids, at least not little tiny kids, and Kotetsu told him all about the highs of parenthood without Antonio needing to be there to experience the lows. By the time Kaede got older, Tomoe got sick and passed away, so she lived out in Oriental Town with Kotetsu's mother and brother, and Antonio saw even less of her.

The young Kaburagi appeared on the other side of the window, clutching the mirrored sunglasses to her face as she approached Bellisiar's bed. She pulled up a stool and sat down, and Antonio could see her lips move, talking to the unconscious criminal.

Based on what Antonio could see of her now, Kaede was brave. Definitely afraid, but very, very brave. And if Antonio learned anything from his career as a hero, he knew that you could only be brave when you had a fear to overcome.

* * *

><p>"You're the man who wants Barnaby dead. That'd be enough to make me hate you already, trying to hurt Barnaby. I love Barnaby—he saved my life, and he's a great hero. I'll never forgive you for wanting him dead.<p>

"But then… you picked my dad to kill him. I am Wild Tiger's daughter. I know _why_ you picked him. Maybe he doesn't have the most arrests, maybe no one buys his trading cards, maybe he runs like a dork and never does anything cool, but he's the greatest hero in the entire world, because he never gives up. Not even your NEXT power could make him more determined that he already is. You've just changed what he's determined about.

"And… more than that… more than that… There's another reason my dad's the greatest hero ever. Because he cares about people. He cares about everyone in Sternbild, good and bad, he cares about his friends, and he cares about his family, and me. And all of us care about him.

"When you picked on Wild Tiger, you picked on _all_ the heroes. And you picked on _me._ Our NEXT powers exist to protect the ones we love, and we all love Tiger and Barnaby. None of us are going to stop until our friends are okay. Giving Wild Tiger an Objective… is the last mistake you will ever make.

"…Bastard."


	22. Compassion

_Kotetsu tosses down a card—the nine of fives—and draws from the deck. The robot toy, who made it very clear that he wanted to be called 'Roy' when Kotetsu struggled with describing him as 'little techy gizmo-thing from Bunny's parents,' made a note of the change in score with a pencil twice his size._

_Barnaby examines the card, draws one, and tosses down two—a pair of pears. Roy awards him two hundred points._

"_Mayonnaise," Barnaby says suddenly._

"_Huh?"_

"_Why mayonnaise?"_

"_Because I like it."_

"_But why on everything?"_

"_Because I like everything," Kotetsu grins, drawing a card, and realizing he has no moves, draws again. "And it makes sense to put something you like with everything else you like, right?"_

"_That's not necessarily true."_

"_Yeah? What two likes shouldn't you put together?"_

"_Alcohol, and just about anything else. Driving, cooking, dancing."_

"_I dance way better when I'm drunk."_

"_You are a terrible dancer, and you only become worse when you are drunk."_

_Kotetsu pouts as Barnaby makes his move, topping his own pears with a cutlery trifecta—the spoon, knife, and fork._

"_Good move," Kotetsu admits as Roy goes wild recording the score. Barnaby got _so_ many points for that one. How is Kotetsu supposed to surpass him? With an excess of cards in his hand, he trades in three and draws one—"A-ha!"_

_Triumphantly, Kotetsu tosses down the Gemini and starts reshuffling the deck. Roy waddles over it and examines the green and pink card with its beady yellow eyes, before determining it's not counterfeit and recording Kotetsu's rocketing score._

"_Kotetsu?"_

"_Hm?"_

"_Can I ask you something?"_

"_Shoot."_

_Barnaby doesn't 'shoot' immediately. He makes another three-one trade, and finding his hand still unfavorable, draws and passes his turn to Kotetsu. "Why do you call me Bunny?"_

"_Lots of reasons. The fluffy hair, the ears on your suit, the way you hop around so much before you charge in—"_

"_I hate that name. You know that," Barnaby cuts him off. "So when I started calling you 'Kotetsu' instead of 'old man,' why didn't you return the favor, and begin to use my name, Barnaby?"_

_Kotetsu considers the answer for a long time._

"_It's because…" Kotetsu begins, but he's not sure how to tell this story, so he plays another card, following his Gemini with a much lower card—the sombrero._

"_Why?"_

"_Because…" Kotetsu watches Barnaby toss down the Ace of Cake. "Well, because…" He follows it with a pair of sunglasses—actual sunglasses, somehow. Mirrored ones that glint in the light. _Weird_._

_Barnaby picks a card from his hand and holds it, staring at Kotetsu. "I won't play until you answer."_

"_That's so not cute," Kotetsu announces, but Barnaby remains firm, twirling the card around his fingers somehow without revealing its face._

"_Tell me why you call me Bunny. I've repeatedly told you not to."_

"_Because…" Kotetsu chews the inside of his lip. "Because…"_

"_Why?"_

_He takes a breath, and takes the plunge. _"_At first, I did it because I was jealous. I wanted to have something to hold over you, even if it was just a stupid nickname. I didn't want you to be perfect," Kotetsu feels his face grow hot just saying it, just admitting that he ever felt envious or resentful of his partner. Barnaby says nothing, so Kotetsu continues._

"_But as I got to know you, I realized that you _aren't_ perfect, even if you look it. Because no one's perfect. I kept calling you Bunny because…" Kotetsu chews the inside of his lip. "I want to be someone who didn't have to be perfect for. I want you to do well, but I don't care if you're King of Heroes or a Second-Leaguer or… anything. It doesn't matter if you're Barnaby Brooks Jr or Li'l Bunny. More important than any of that, you're you, and I care about you."_

_Barnaby smirks a little. "And are you sure all of those sentimental feelings reach me when you use that name?"_

"_I mean, it might be a good thing you hate the name," Kotetsu jokes. "It kept you from killing me, right?"_

"_A fair point," Barnaby says. "Now, then, a follow-up question."_

_Barnaby lets his card fall onto the stack. The Eight of Stars, the game-ender, he wins. But before Kotetsu can in any way acknowledge his partner's victory, Barnaby asks, "What's going to keep _you_ from killing _me_?"_

"_Huh? What are you talking about?"_

"_You're going to kill me."_

"_No, I'm not."_

"_But you will."_

"_I promise I won't!" Kotetsu insists. "I won't do anything to hurt you, Bunny!"_

"_But you must," Barnaby repeats._

"_No way! Nothing could ever make me kill you! I'd die before I let that happen!"_

_Barnaby takes off his glasses and says, "Objective."_

**Kill Bunny.**

_Kotetsu remembers. He remembers everything he's said and done and thought, and his blood runs cold._

"_No," he whispers. "No, no, no, the others are going to stop me, they know, they'll stop me! They can and they will!"_

"_How?"_

"_I—I don't know, but I trust them! They'll find a way!"_

"_There is no way, and you know it." Barnaby's eyes ripple, like the pupils are growing larger to consume his entire iris, leaving behind nothing but darkness. His hair wilts, flattens, and shrinks back into his head. His glasses evaporate right out of his hand into smoke as his clothes darken, too, darken and shift._

"_No, they're going to stop me! You'll be okay, Bunny!"_

"_The Objective is absolute," he sneers, and Barnaby is completely gone. In his place stands Bellisair, just as Kotetsu had left him standing in his kitchen what feels like years ago. The room dissolves and rebuilds, too, until he's standing at the top of the Justice Tower, just inside the statue's face, restraining the fake Wild Tiger android. H-01 struggles, almost dislodging Kotetsu, but he holds firm with his Hundred Power._

"_You heroes believe that you are superior to that android because you can make decisions for yourself, without programming or orders. You have hearts. Souls. Will of your own."_

_Bellisair raises his arm. He's holding H-01's energy cannon, aiming it directly at Kotetsu and the android._

"_But that's _my_ power. I can program people's minds, turn humans into my androids and give them one goal. Yours is to murder your partner, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Obey your programming. Obey your Objective."_

"_You're—ngh—wrong!" Kotetsu pulls on H-01, holding it back. "I won't do it! You can't—"_

"_Kotetsu!"_

_At the sound of his partner's voice, Kotetsu looks around, still struggling with the android. "Bunny? Where are you?"_

"_Kotetsu, let go!"_

"_I'll be all right! I'll dodge before it hits!"_

"_Kotetsu,_ let go of me!_"_

_The pink suit of armor in his arms isn't H-01. He's staring at the back of a helmet framed with long pink ears, almost like a rabbit. Barnaby fights Kotetsu's grip, but Kotetsu can't control his own hands, not even now that he knows he's holding his partner in the line of fire._

_He can't let go._

_Bellisair pulls the trigger. A stream of purple light blasts forth._

"_KOTETSU!"_

_The bolt hits Barnaby. He screams._

"_BUNNY!"_

_It continues through. Kotetsu's power runs out._

_The bolt hits Kotetsu._

* * *

><p>Kotetsu jolted awake, head and heart pounding in tandem. Everything ached, from a crick in his neck to a foot turned wrong for the whole… however long he had been asleep. The world glowed, too bright to still be nighttime, but he had no idea how much time had passed.<p>

"You're still here."

Kotetsu twisted and managed to sit up, his face falling into a shadow cast by another person, someone's silhouette against the sun. "Huh?"

"Mom said I'm not allowed to give money to hobos, because they'll just go buy drugs."

His eyes gradually adjusted, and he recognized a boy with mousy features in a school uniform, toting a large backpack and a lunchbox "…Hobos?"

"But I'm allowed to give them food, because they can't get drugs with food." The small child opened up his lunchbox and pulled out a plastic baggie with a sandwich in it, then held it out to Kotetsu.

Kotetsu's eyes went wide at the unexpected gift—food almost literally falling into his lap, that didn't disrupt the Objective—so he snatched the sandwich and tore the plastic bag apart, shoving a whole half of the diagonal-cut sandwich into his mouth. Peanut butter and jelly. Heavenly.

"You shouldn't do drugs," the boy told Kotetsu flatly. "That's why you're a hobo. If you stop doing drugs, you can get a house and a job so you won't be a hobo."

Kotetsu choked a bit as he tried to chew on the mass of sandwich in his mouth. "Mhhmmhmmhmn."

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full, either."

After a minute, Kotetsu swallowed enough of the sandwich to shove most of it into his cheeks. "I have a house! And a job!"

"But you're a hobo."

"I'm not!"

"Then why were you asleep on the street?" the boy pressed. "I passed you on my way to school, and you were still here when it ended."

"When you…" Kotetsu swallowed more of the sandwich. "What time is it?"

"After three. School just ended."

"Dammit," Kotetsu mumbled, pushing against the concrete, but he was still too weak. _Kill Bunny kill __**Bunny kill Bunny**__ kill Bunny_.

"Why did you sleep on the street if you have a house and job?"

"I passed out," Kotetsu explained.

"Because you had drugs?"

"I didn't have any drugs, okay?" Kotetsu snapped. "I was tired! I spent all night trying to find Bunny's hotel…" Kotetsu tried standing again, this time pulling his knees in a little closer, and he managed to at least sit up on his heels. His legs still felt a little too shaky to support his weight, so he crouched there for a second, catching his breath.

"Why is your bunny at a hotel? Don't you mean the pound?"

"Bunny's a person," Kotetsu explained. "I just call him Bunny." _**Kill Bunny! Kill Bunny!**__ Kill Bunny. Kill __**Bunny! Kill**__ Bunny._

The boy watched Kotetsu for a minute as he focused on stabilizing his knees, then said, "You should eat the rest of my sandwich, even if you're not a hobo."

Reminded of the sandwich, Kotetsu took the other half from the ruptured plastic and took a huge bite, one step below wolfing it down like the other half. Suddenly, it occurred to him, "Wait, this is your lunch. Did you get the chance to eat?"

"Yeah, it's fine," the boy said. "Mom forgot my class was supposed to have a pizza party today, so she packed me a lunch anyway."

Guilt assuaged, Kotetsu took another bite and made another attempt to stand. This time he made it, and he took a few steps forward. No troubles there, legs still aching, but that was to be expected. Kotetsu looked down at the kid and suddenly realized how young he looked. It had been hard to tell from down on the ground, but he had to be younger than Kaede, with a high forehead, big, round eyes, and baby-fat cheeks.

"How old are you?" Kotetsu asked.

"Seven and three-quarters."

"Do you live around here?"

The boy pointed, and Kotetsu managed to smile.

"I'm heading that way, too. I'll walk with you."

"Why?" the kid asked, frowning a bit.

"I want to make sure you're okay."

"I walk back and forth to school all the time," he explained. "I don't need you."

Kotetsu ruffled his hair with his uninjured hand. "Well, you wanted to make sure I was okay, right? Let me return the favor."

The boy thought it over, but apparently decided to let Kotetsu walk with him anyway. Kotetsu limped alongside the young boy, working out the knots in his muscles with each step. Definitely not an ideal night's sleep, but the fainting had done him a little good. And it helped that this boy was heading the same direction as the Objective, so he could feel the little soul-warming tickle from helping others that always got him through whatever his own pain might be.

"What was the pizza party for?" Kotetsu asked.

The boy's face lit up. "Oh, it was the best!" he exclaimed, before launching into a grand story about his day at school. Kotetsu couldn't quite keep track of every detail over the noise in his head, but the story sounded like a ton of fun, and he was smiling before too long.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the boy's apartment building, but before he keyed in his code to open the door, he looked back at Kotetsu.

"Do you want to come inside?" he asked. "I think I could give you some of my dad's clothes, and since you can't get drugs with clothes, either."

"No, it's fine!" Kotetsu waved. "I gotta keep going."

"You're really weird, for a hobo."

"I'm not a hobo!"

"Then…" the kid grinned at him. "Don't _become_ a hobo, either!"

Kotetsu gave the kid a thumbs-up as he keyed into his apartment, leaving Kotetsu on the stoop. He turned away and hopped down the stairs, mapping out his next destination.

"Kill Bunny," he muttered. "Kill Bunny, kill Bunny, kill Bunny…"

* * *

><p>Ivan spread out his map of the neighborhood for Nathan and Keith to see, and started filling in the little circle-marked hotels with black pen. Everyone had definitely seen Kotetsu, but had no idea where he had gone, by virtue of being employees with desk jobs that only saw people arrive and leave, never where they were going or where they had been.<p>

"This is quite a puzzle~," Nathan unfolded his own similarly fruitless map. "It seems like Tiger was all over the place. This would be so much easier if he had just picked a direction and run. Any more luck with you, Sky High?"

"No, and again, no!" Keith reported. "I'm just waiting for Mr. Origami's pen!"

Ivan finished his dots and tried to overlay his map with Nathan's and trace out some sort of trajectory for Kotetsu's search. He had finished off the hotels in Keith's neighborhood quickly, but the more crowded business district provided plenty of places to search for their lost and loony friend.

"The girls should be leaving school soon," Ivan whispered. "Even if Bison-san has to stay with Tiger-chan, we'll have five heroes instead of three."

"Yes, but Handsome will be leaving Apollon soon after that," Nathan put a hand to his chin. "We haven't come up with a new plan for Team Three, so we need to reorganize again, to keep Handsome from slipping out of our hands and into Tiger's. He won't listen to me again, he might go back with Sky High, but even so~…"

"We still haven't found Mr. Wild! Miss Wild can't fix him until we know where he is!"

"We need more people," Ivan added.

With a sigh, Nathan pulled out his cell phone and started dialing.

"Who are you calling, Mr. Fire?"

"Backup," Nathan said as he put the phone to his ear. "I didn't want to drag them into this, but if anything, they're good manpower."

"Who?"

"The Second League."


	23. Action

"Okay! That's another desk-person who doesn't know what we're talking about. The shift has officially changed," Bombeman announced to his fellow Second League heroes as they left yet another hotel. "So no more asking about who's seen Mr. Tiger. But, he has to be around here somewhere! And we'll find him, because we are _real __heroes_!"

Chopman sighed, briefly fogging up the inside of his helmet. Bombeman's pep talks got more aggravating than inspiring the more often he delivered them, which was often. Chopman could almost feel him trying to follow in the footsteps of encouraging, inspiring heroes, but while he matched their energy, he didn't really have anything encouraging to say. All Chopman knew was, whatever catchphrase his sponsors might give him, he'd surely deliver it with enthusiasm… every. Single. Time. Every so often, he wondered what catchphrase he'd be given if—_when!_—he advanced from the Second League. He really hoped he didn't have to stay Chopman. That sounded like a lumberjack hero. He'd rather turn down promotion than become The Lumberjack Hero.

"And how are we going to do _that_!" Ms. Violet snapped at him. "If we've lost our lead, then we don't know where Mr. Tiger is!"

"Aha, but that's where you're wrong," Bombeman pointed to Ms. Violet, no doubt grinning beneath his mask. "The First League heroes told us to check _hotels_."

"That's what we've been doing! And the hotels don't know where he is!"

"Come on, guys!" Bombeman turned to the assembled Second Leaguers. "This is an extremely important mission! Find Wild Tiger! And that means if we can do it, we'll prove ourselves!"

"Prove ourselves?" Sumo Thunder echoed.

"Yes! You want to know why the First League has asked us for help?"

No one said anything. As the silence started to make Chopman's skin crawl, he realized that Bombeman was actually waiting for someone to actually ask him why. So Chompan obliged. "Why?"

"Because this job is too hard for them!" Bombeman clenched his fists with excitement. "If we find Mr. Tiger, then we'll succeed where the First League failed! And that would mean that we're _better_ than the First League! Then the sponsors will notice and promote us!"

"You really think so?" Sumo Thunder asked hopefully.

"I _know_ so!" Bombeman asserted. "We're so close to getting respect and recognition! If we find Wild Tiger, then all our work won't have been in vain! Who's with me?"

Sumo Thunder cheered with Bombeman. Ms. Violet didn't, but she smiled, so Chopman could tell it was a dignity-thing rather than an agreeing-with-Bombeman-thing. Personally, Chopman didn't cheer, either. It was easy for Bombeman to go on and on about 'getting close' and 'being recognized,' because he _got_ things. He had a lot of natural strength, and he picked up new fighting techniques quickly. Ms. Violet always knew about the latest forensic and crime-fighting advances, and even if it never quite translated to fieldwork, she was just so smart. And Sumo had to be the bravest, because even though he was terrified of blood and guns and loud, sudden noises, which sometimes included his own power, he still pursued a job as a hero.

Chopman followed along ("This way, everyone!" Bombeman decided) and stared at Ms. Violet's heels in front of him, rather aware that if anyone got promoted to the First League for this, it probably wouldn't be him.

Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks Jr: twelve years of First League experience between them, a King of Heroes crown apiece, close, personal friends in high places… It'd be so easy to be jealous or resentful of them, if they weren't so _nice_. Granted, Barnaby was a lot more reserved and distant, but no matter what happened, no matter how badly the Second Leaguers messed up, he never blamed or belittled them for it. Tiger didn't always have the same sensitivity, but he was so invested in the Second League and helping his fellow heroes shine, sharing what he learned over the years and developing their crime-fighting styles. Chopman couldn't count on his hands the number of times Tiger disregarded his own gain to help Chopman: spotting him on weight training rather than working out himself, walking him through sparring exercises, giving him a leg up in the field even if it meant using his limited minute of power.

Forget about being 'better' than the First League. When Fire Emblem had called, he stressed the importance of finding Tiger so much; there had to be serious trouble. Chopman just wanted the chance to help Tiger the way Tiger always helped him.

The platoon of Second Leaguers continued their hunt through the city streets, searching for clues. It didn't help that the forensic expert among them wanted to trace blood spatter and DNA evidence, which Chopman knew wouldn't find Tiger in time. If they were in a forest, they could look for things like footprints and broken branches, but the unyielding concrete-and-steel Sternbild refused to offer such evidence.

"Bombeman, you led us the wrong way!" Ms. Violet finally decided, jabbing her finger at Bombeman's 'B.' "Did you even think about what direction we were going!"

"I didn't have to think, I _felt_ it!" Bombeman defended. "I knew we had to go this way!"

"Why! What in the world made you think that was a good idea!"

"Well, which way did _you_ tell us to go, Vi?"

"Ms. Violet! You will refer to me by my full name!"

"Why should I? You're not even violet!"

"What!"

"You suit is indigo! And your hair is green! There's nothing violet about you!"

"I've always been Ms. Violet! And I've been a hero for longer than you, so you should show respect!"

"What, you call being the hero for the Hicksville General Store hero-ing? Did you ever even stop a crime there? They probably fired you because they couldn't afford a hero that never did anything!"

"_Shut up!_" Ms. Violet screamed, and Chopman winced. Bombeman hit a nerve. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

"Guys, could you stop shouting?" Sumo Thunder clasped his hands over his ears, rattling his beaded dreadlocks.

"_I will stop shouting when __he__ apologizes!_"

As Ms. Violet and Bombeman continued bickering, Chopman looked away and sighed, once again fogging up the inside of his helmet. He wanted the fighting to stop as much as Sumo Thunder did, but Sumo had a better chance of being listened to than he did. They _were_ going to fail at this rate. The First League will hate them, the sponsors will scoff at them, the people will laugh at them. Their only hope of finding Wild Tiger at this point was if he suddenly crossed their path by pure, random, and inexplicable coincidence…

The fog in Chopman's mask cleared, and he saw through the crowd of people crossing the street a man with brown hair in a green shirt, white (but stained) vest, and newsie hat. Leaving the quarreling heroes, Chopman took a few steps toward the man and found the final, defining trait: kitty-beard.

Without thinking, Chompan ran forward, across the street, dodging cars and shouting "sorry!" at the angered drivers. After a minute, he had almost caught up with the veteran hero.

"Tiger!" he called. Tiger whipped around and held his hands in front of him, prepared for a fight. Chopman saw the makeshift bandage, apparently made from his own sleeve, as well as small scrapes and bruises dotting along his arms. "We found you!"

"Why?" Tiger asked, twitching a little. "What do you want with me?"

"Um… We got a call that you were missing," Chopman said, a little surprised by the hostility. "You haven't been to training for the last two days. Barnaby, too."

Tiger's lips moved, muttering something, but Chopman didn't hear, so he continued explaining. "The First League heroes are really worried. They asked us to help find you."

"You're not going to stop me!" Tiger snapped. "I won't let you!"

Chopman blinked at the odd phrasing, but his mask hid the expression. "Stop you? They just asked us to find you."

Slowly, Tiger's fists dropped. He looked down somewhere around Chopman's knees, lost in thought.

"See? There's nothing to worry about!" Chopman took a few steps closer. "We're just glad to know you're safe… but, what happened?"

"I've… been on the run," Tiger said. "Because, uh, the First League is mad at me."

"Mad? But why?"

"They don't want me to find Bunny. They're hiding him from me."

"Why would they do that? You're his partner."

"Exactly!" Tiger reached out and placed his hands on Chopman's shoulders. "You understand, right? I _have_ to find Bunny! I have to!"

Chopman thought it over. Short of contagious infection, he couldn't name a single reason to keep the partners apart. And since Tiger accumulated all these injuries, there was either a crime in progress, or he had critical intelligence, which of course he'd want to tell Barnaby about first.

"Chopman? Where are you?"

"Chopman!"

With the others calling, Chopman turned around and waved. "Over here! I found Tiger!"

The three other second-leaguers sprinted toward their colleagues. "Chopman, how'd you find him?" Bombeman asked.

"It's nothing special," Chopman admitted. "I just noticed him in the crowd…"

"You look terrible! Sir! I regret informing you of that!" Ms. Violet announced, speaking more respectfully but failing to turn down her volume.

Tiger just waved the statement away. "Never mind that! I need your help."

"What is it?" Bombeman asked. "I'm sure we can help!"

"I have to find Bunny. A call band, a cell phone, anything, I gotta call him."

"You can use my visor! Sir!" Ms. Violet said, removing the pink plastic frames and passing them to Tiger.

"Great! Now how the hell do I use this?"

Tiger affixed the technology to his face as Ms. Violet set up the call to Barnaby's Apollon desk. Discretely, Chopman touched a button on the other side of the visor, setting the call on speakerphone. They'd get more answers if they could hear both what Tiger said and how Barnaby responded. Ms. Violet definitely noticed the broadcasted dial tone, but neither she nor Tiger reached to turn it off. Tiger apparently didn't care, and Ms. Violet was as curious as Chopman.

The call picked up. "_Hello, Ms Vi—_"

"Bunny!" Tiger interrupted his partner. "Where are you?"

"_Kotetsu?_"

"Leave Apollon!"

"_But I'm about to go to train—_"

"Skip that!" Tiger ordered. "Get out of Apollon! I have to find you!"

"_Why can't you come to Apollon?_"

"They won't let me in, like last time."

"_Last time? Who wouldn't let you in?_"

"The other heroes," Tiger said. "They tricked me and snuck you out of the building. Agnes is with them, and I don't know who else, but you gotta assume everyone! The Second League is helping me, so they're good, but everyone in the First League, don't listen to them!

The Second League heroes beamed and gave thumbs-up at Tiger's approval. They liked being 'good.' Chopman smiled a bit, too, hidden by his helmet.

"_So then… All of them… It's all been a trick!_"

"Yes! They're trying to keep me from getting to you, but I have to—I have to—"

Tiger trailed off, garbling his words and apparently losing his train of thought. Chopman looked a little closer—Tiger's pupils were just pinpricks behind the visor. And saying that the whole First League could not be trusted? That was much more serious than the excuse Tiger had given Chopman earlier. If Tiger and the First League were at odds, which side should they help? Who was using whom as a pawn?

After a minute, Barnaby spoke again. "_All right, Kotetsu. I have an idea. Meet me at Janus Square. No matter how long it takes, or who tries to stop us, or who tells you I've gone somewhere else, we'll meet there. No more chasing each other in circles._"

Tiger laughed. "That's so smart, Bunny! You're the best!"

"_I'll see you soon, Kotetsu. And thank you._"

The call ended, and Tiger ripped Ms. Violet's visor from his face. "I gotta go," he said. "Thanks a ton! I'll remember this!"

"No problem!" Bombeman gave him thumbs up. "We in the Second League stick together!"

"Wait," Chopman spoke up. "Why do you need to see Barnaby?"

"Because… I need to," Tiger replied, struggling with his words yet again.

"Chopman, it doesn't matter why," Bombeman said. "It's the invincible Tiger and Barnaby! Partners can meet outside of work, too."

"I'm questioning why the First League wants to keep them from meeting," Chopman said quietly. "If he's on the run from criminals, then the First League should be helping him. If he's on the run from the First League, there's something worse than a crime happening."

"You're paranoid!" Ms. Violet declared. "And that is disrespectful to Mr. Tiger to accuse him when he has done nothing wrong!"

"Yeah, listen to Violet!" Tiger urged. "I can explain everything to you guys after, but right now, I have to go!"

"You can't spare two minutes to tell us what's going on?" Chopman reached out and grabbed Tiger's arm. Tiger pulled back, but Chopman held tight, as Tiger himself had taught him to do. "Barnaby isn't at the square yet, and he said he'd wait if you get delayed."

"No more delays! No more waiting, I have to complete the Objective!"

"Objective?" Sumo Thunder took a step closer. "What objective?"

"K…" Tiger clapped his free hand to his mouth, then peeled away a few fingers. "K—K—C'mon! Let me go! This isn't important!"

"Tiger, what's the objective?" Bombeman asked. "We can help you if you tell us what it is!"

"Mr. Tiger, you need to tell us!" Ms. Violet pressed. "What's the objective! Sir!"

"What is it?" Chopman wrestled with Tiger's arm. The veteran's other hand flew to his head, putting pressure on his temple. "Tell us what it is!"

"Shut up… Just stop… Stop!" Tiger growled, tugging on his own hair, and Chopman had the chilling feeling that Tiger wasn't talking about their interrogation.

The Second Leaguers continued: "What is it?"

"Tell us!"

"Tell us what it is!"

"_Kill Bunny_!" Tiger cried, as if the words had been ripped from his throat. With ragged breathing, he repeated himself, mumbling, "Kill B-Bunny… Kill Bunny… kill… kill him…"

"What?" Bombeman grabbed Tiger by the shoulders. "What are you talking about?"

"Kill Bunny," Tiger said again, not looking Bombeman in the eye. "Kill Bunny, complete the Objective, and then I can stop… But I can't stop until he's dead…"

Chopman gaped at Tiger, though his helmet showed no expression. Kill his partner? Just because someone told him to? Well, judging by the wild eyes and torn-up appearance, it had something more to it than a simple request. Mind control, or brainwashing? He had heard of NEXTs with those kind of powers before, and when it came to the range of NEXT abilities, everything is possible.

But there's no way that could happen to someone like Wild Tiger… right?

"Ms. Violet," Chopman said. "Call Fire Emblem. Tell him we have Tiger."

"R-Right!" Ms. Violet tapped her visor, starting another call.

"_No!_" Tiger twisted his arm and broke Chopman's grip, then driving his other hand into the young hero's chest and knocking him to the ground. Chopman wheezed, the air knocked out of him, and his mind reeled with pain. Scandalized that Tiger had attacked one of their own, the other Second Leaguers stood by for a paralyzed moment as Tiger glared at them with dark, wild eyes.

"It's like you guys _want_ me to kill you, too," he growled.

Sumo Thunder curled his fist and charged, but with a well-timed dip, Tiger grabbed hold of the massive hero and, using his own momentum, tossed him over his shoulder.

"I promise I don't want to do that…" Tiger said as Bombeman swung at him. He dodged and swiped at his legs, knocking him to the ground. "…But if you want to stop my Objective, I'll have to!" Ms. Violet curled her hands into fists, preparing to take her turn, but she tripped over the fallen Chopman's leg, falling face-first to join her companions.

"CHOPMAN!" she howled in rage.

"I didn't mean to!" Chopman cried.

Realizing all the attackers had been neutralized, Tiger turned and started running. For Chopman, it looked like everything went into slow motion.

Tiger's feet, right, left, right, left. Raising his left arm, as it pointing toward the top of a building. Bracing with his right. Taking aim. A thin silvery wire shooting from his arm and embedding itself in a skyscraper.

_I can't fail again!_ Chopman raised his own hand and activated his NEXT ability, charging a massive chop in his right hand.

The wire went taught. Pulled Tiger into the air.

_Just a little more…_

Halfway up. Two-thirds.

_Now!_

Chopman let the force go, and a disc of blue energy shot from his hand like a slingshot, slicing straight through the thin wire. Trajectory ruined, Tiger fell, inches from his destination on the roof, an awning (slightly) breaking his fall to the street below.

Breathing hard, Chopman stood on shaky legs, and found the other Second Leaguers staring at him.

"…What!" he snapped.

"You… did something…" Sumo said.

"Huh?"

"You actually did something," Ms. Violet added.

"Yeah? Why is that so surprising?"

Bombeman tugged a bit at the seam of his mask. "It's just… Well, you never do things."

"Th-That doesn't matter!" Chopman spluttered, not sure how to feel about his co-workers' phrasing. "We have to catch Tiger!"

After another stunned second, Bombeman took the lead. "Good idea! Let's go!"

They fell easily into a familiar formation—a square, two in front, two in back, in pursuit of a criminal. Chopman let Ms. Violet and Bombeman lead, content that for once, he hadn't screwed up as badly as usual. For once, he might have even done something right.


	24. Pursuit

Barnaby hung up the phone, his expression darkening as he abandoned his desk and headed straight for the elevators. Don't trust anyone? All right then. Just he and Kotetsu against the world. No problem; at least Barnaby knew what to expect now.

Everything made sense, in light of this deception. Saito's tedious ocean testing, Nathan's insistence he spend the night, Agnes' makeover, Keith's anxiety, Karina's confession. They all lied to him! Lied about Kotetsu! Barnaby replayed his partner's warning in his head, glaring suspiciously at those who passed him. _Don't listen to the First League. Assume everyone is with them. Find Kotetsu._ He secured an elevator, and though the doors shut on the brightly lit space, Barnaby's whole world seemed dark. Don't trust anyone but Kotetsu. Get to Janus Square and learn the truth.

The throngs of people in the Apollon lobby continued about their business as usual, and Barnaby threaded through them, heading for the door, but a girl in a yellow tracksuit suddenly jumped in front of him.

"Hey, Barnaby, I was wondering—"

"No," Barnaby cut Pao Lin off. "Please move."

"But where are you going?"

"I see no reason to tell you," Barnaby said, stepping to the side, but Pao Lin matched his move. "You're trying to delay me."

"I just have a question!"

"I'm through listening to the First League. All of you are plotting against us."

"Us? Who's 'us?'"

"Kotetsu and I."

Pao Lin's eyes widened, the only evidence Barnaby needed of conspiracy.

"What have you done to him?" Barnaby asked darkly. "He's called me again. He sounds even worse now. And he said you're deliberately keeping us apart."

"We're trying to help!" Pao Lin stamped her foot. "We're the good guys!"

"Whatever you're doing isn't working. He's lost faith in all of you, and he's told me not to trust you, either."

"And you _believe_ him?" Pao Lin jabbed her thumb at her chest. "Why don't you believe us? There's six of us, and we don't want to keep you and Tiger apart forever! Just for now!"

"I only needed one piece of information to make me believe Kotetsu over you," Barnaby held up a finger. "Kotetsu said he has to meet me. In other words, he _needs_ me. And Kotetsu never asks for help until it's too late. If he's asking for me now, I have to go to him."

"But what if it's wrong?" Pao Lin insisted. "What if he doesn't really need your help, he just needs you, there… for something else…"

"I don't see any difference between those scenarios," Barnaby said. "If Kotetsu needs me, he needs me. And if you attempt to detain me, I will fight, and with my power."

"You don't understand," Pao Lin said. "We're trying to help you—both of you!"

"Tell me why. Tell me why I should trust you instead of my partner."

Pao Lin gritted her teeth a little bit, because no one pushes Dragon Kid around, but she had no answer. Barnaby placed a hand on Pao Lin's shoulder and moved her aside, maybe with a little more force than necessary, bracing himself for her counter-attack. It never came, and Barnaby looked around, remembering the crowd of people around them. She wouldn't attack in public, where she could hurt others. Though when Barnaby passed, she did flip his hold, grabbing him by the wrist instead.

"Barnaby, we need you to trust _us_," she told him. "Stay away from Tiger for just one more day."

"I will not. I'm going to him now."

"But I promise it's important!"

"Then explain!" Barnaby demanded. "Kotetsu is my _partner_. I trust him more than anyone in the world. I can't trust those who keep secrets from me. Explain yourself or let me go!"

Though Barnaby could not predict Pao Lin's thought process, she arrived at a decision, and let go of Barnaby's arm.

"I thought so." Barnaby left the Apollon building to meet Kotetsu at Janus Square.

* * *

><p>"Stop!"<p>

"Mr. Tiger, stop!"

Kotetsu ignored the shouts of the Second Leaguers and kept running. If he had just kept his stupid mouth shut, they wouldn't be so angry about his Objective! Why did _everyone_ hate his Objective so much? Couldn't they tell Kotetsu hated it, too? This constant screaming in his head, _**Kill Bunny! Kill! Bunny! Kill!**_ he just wanted everything to be quiet, and he was going about it the only way he knew how.

He could probably put a little more effort into evasive maneuvers to shake them off completely, but Kotetsu had to go forward, toward the Square. He needed to go up a Stage, too, to Silver, and since his wire got cut, he'd have to find another way up. The monorail could traverse Stages, but the wait would be too long, especially if the Second League continued their pursuit. If he could just outrun them—

A red sports car shot out of a side street and screeched to a stop, blocking the pedestrian street. Kotetsu skidded, changing directions and running the way he had just came, but the advancing Second Leaguers blocked him again. Caught between two obstacles, Kotetsu tried to judge which choice was easier to push past, but the Objective wouldn't let him concentrate: _**Kill! Bunny! Kill Bunny! Kill them, and kill Bunny!**_

...Yes, that made a lot of sense, didn't it? These people constantly getting in his way, if he killed them, then they wouldn't be in his way anymore…

The car doors opened, Nathan on the driver's side, Ivan at the passenger's. They immediately braced themselves for a fight.

"Stop right now, Tiger!" Nathan called. "We can get rid of your Objective! But if you don't stop, we'll be forced to fight you!"

Impossible. Literally impossible. Kotetsu wanted to laugh at how stupidly impossible that was, to end the Objective without completing it, but his head pounded with _**Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!**_ which seemed like the more important thought at the moment.

He did a quick head-count. Six on one, so bad odds from the start, but the individual combatants mattered. Nathan, a strong fighter, but with a dangerous NEXT ability. He wouldn't use his fire in a situation like this; a self-imposed handicap. Then Ivan, a fast fighter, with the same limitation on his favorite ninja-knives. Flinging those around could hurt someone permanently, and with a non-combative power, so long as Kotetsu kept Ivan in sight, he'd be easy. Then the Second League behind him: amateurs, all of them, half-taught to fight by Kotetsu himself, each with slight limits to the NEXT powers that would give him plenty of time to dodge, even without using his power. They didn't yet know how to attack in a group, and they might just hinder Nathan and Ivan while trying to help.

Mind made up—not _**kill! Kill! KILL!**_, maybe just hurt, hurt until they stopped getting up—Kotetsu raised his fists and assumed his own fighting stance.

"Bring it."

* * *

><p>Antonio ushered Kaede out of the hospital, very careful to give her at least a foot of personal space. Navigating the bustling hallways had been hard enough. You could never tell who was a NEXT, and with all the people around, it'd be too easy to bump someone and lose Bellisair's power.<p>

"You all right, Kaede?" Antonio asked as they cleared the lobby and sprinted toward the parking lot.

"Y-Yeah!" Kaede stammered, struggling to keep up with the stronger, longer-legged hero. Antonio wished he could carry her to go faster, but he fought back the instinct. He unlocked his car with the remote key, its taillights flashing, and Kaede ran to the passenger side, hastily buckling her seatbelt and engaging the child-lock for good measure. This was a day for breaking traffic laws.

Antonio started the car and dropped his cell phone into Kaede's lap, looking over his shoulder and pulling out of the parking space. "Call Dragon Kid. See if she stopped Barnaby."

"Got it!" Kaede tapped the phone on. Antonio could see her fingers trembling. Adrenaline? Fear? Both?

In a few rings, Pao Lin answered on speakerphone. "_Yeah?_"

"Did you stop Barnaby?" Antonio asked.

"_I couldn't. He wanted the truth, and I just… froze. I couldn't tell him. But I did fry the traffic lights. Every single light in the Gold Stage is red, in all directions._"

"Gridlock. Good thinking," Antonio said. "Do we know where Tiger is?"

"_The Second League is tracking him, and Fire Emblem and Origami should be there by now. They'll stop him. If that doesn't work, Second League says he's going to Janus Square. We can stop him there._"

"All right. Kaede and I are on the road. We'll be there soon."

"_Got it!_"

Pao Lin hung up, and Kaede slid Antonio's phone into a cup holder, hugging her elbows.

"Are you okay?"

Kaede pressed her lips together. "It's… this power."

"Does it feel bad?"

"No," Kaede admitted, shaking her head. "I can't feel what power I have when I'm not using it. I have to test it, or sometimes it just turns on by itself…"

"Then what's wrong?"

"I… I know what Bellisair's done with this power. It's evil. There's this evil power, inside me—"

"Kaede, you're not like him. You're going to use that power to save your dad. It'll be fine."

"What if we're too late?"

The light ahead turned yellow. Antonio pressed his foot into the gas pedal, and the car lurched forward, racing the clock.

"We won't be."

* * *

><p>As far as the eye could see, cars, stuck, horns blaring from every direction, and in the middle of it all, Barnaby Brooks Jr, deep in thought. This had to be Pao Lin's handiwork. A mass power surge, something that would overload the city circuits and cause everything to just <em>stop<em>.

_This is how far they're willing to go._ Barnaby thought, cleaning his glasses on a cloth. _They'll sabotage Sternbild itself to stop Kotetsu and me from meeting._ Such despicable methods. And if they had given the Silver Stage the same treatment, even worse. How could the mayor's office or the Justice Bureau stand for such irrational actions by the heroes? The entire First League was going to suffer the consequences; probation, suspension, elimination. And at the present moment, Barnaby had a very hard time feeling sorry for them.

At the back of his mind, he wondered what sort of emergency could possibly warrant this sort of treatment. The Maverick incident came to mind, with all the heroes (including him) tricked into hunting Kotetsu as a murderer, but judging from when this strange behavior began, the heroes had all referred to Kotetsu normally, as Wild Tiger, and as a friend. A friend they did not want near Barnaby.

Kotetsu probably had intelligence about the nature of this emergency. Something extremely sensitive that he couldn't share over the phone, possibly something that could bring down a great institution. Maybe it had something to do with Hero TV. The conspiracy theories of staged crimes persisted—understandably, given Maverick admitted to staging crimes for the program. What if Kotetsu had found something relevant to that? More information about other sects of Ouroboros, or a similar organization with its sinister fingers tangled in the fabric of their society? But why on earth would the other heroes be defending such a scandal? They had no qualms fighting Maverick when they realized the truth. Could there be other pressures? From the government? From their sponsors?

The gridlock inched forward as the city deployed police officers to temporarily direct traffic, but Barnaby eased toward the side of the road and found a public parking garage. Tossing money at the attendant, Barnaby parked and proceeded on foot to the edge of the Gold Stage. Walking, even if he spent some time running with his Hundred Power, it would still take him quite some time to reach Janus Square. He had to hope that Kotetsu found a way to the park, in spite of all obstacles. He wished he could just search for Kotetsu on his own, but they had spent three days chasing each other, spinning their wheels uselessly as whatever sinister force responsible for pulling the strings laughed at their futile struggle.

Near the edge of the Gold Stage, Barnaby activated his power, leapt up to the top of the building, and kept running, off the edge of the roof, wind rushing in his ears as he dove toward the Silver Stage below.

_I'll find you, Kotetsu. I promise._

* * *

><p>As Kotetsu expected, the inexperienced Second Leaguers hindered Ivan and Nathan as much as they helped: attacking at odd times, accidentally revealing feints, and interrupting combo attacks. Their brawl drove away the other pedestrians, freeing up space, but Kotetsu could easily dodge among the mass of heroes and turn each other into accidental targets. He felled Bombeman that way, as he charged with a punch as Ms Violet flung a high kick. A quick duck, and Ms Violet's foot hit Bombeman's mask, and the brown-suited hero went down.<p>

_**Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!**_

So far, though no routes for escape had shown themselves, Kotetsu was surviving. But if he couldn't get out of this fight in the next few minutes, he'd need to seriously injure someone. He definitely didn't want to kill _all_ of them—just Barnaby—but blood would make an excellent distraction. Maybe dislocate a shoulder? No, he fought through those all the time. A broken arm—no, a leg, that'd be better. Snap the bone. It was between Ms. Violet, Chopman, and Ivan for who had the thinnest bones with the least muscle-bulk. A quick break, and he'd lose at least half of his pursuers.

Dodge, roll, jab, punch, block, dip, take a punch, shake it off, elbow, flip, roll again. He could feel them holding back, like a sparring session. The difference felt strongest in Nathan and Ivan especially, afraid of hurting him permanently. As for Kotetsu, the longer he fought, the more and more tempting it became to ignore the danger of harm altogether, and aim for crippling pressure points. Anything to get out of this fight and—

_**Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!**_

He couldn't actually kill anyone over this. Could he? Just hurt them. But how else would he get out of this fight?

_Kill…_

Before he could act, Nathan landed an amazingly good hit, right in the center of Kotetsu's chest, knocking him off balance. Pressing the advantage, he continued with a series of hard strikes to his solar plexus, followed with an enormous kick that sent Kotetsu flying. He landed flat on his back and skidded a few feet, staring up at the sky. Too many more hits like that and he'd never complete the Objective. Killing, his last resort, was his only option now.

In the haze of pain, he heard voices shouting all over each other—he picked out a few, like Nathan, Antonio, Ms Violet, and… a girl? Yes, the young voice was getting closer. And he could hear what it was saying now—"Dad!"

"Kaede…" Kotetsu mumbled.

"Dad, get up!"

But how could she be here? He had to be hearing things. Like the Objective's voice in his head, some part of him was starting to speak with his daughter's voice. He struggled to sit up, one hand clasping his hat, which had somehow survived this whole ordeal, and blinked lazily.

"Look at me! Dad! _Dad!_"

Closer now; louder. Could she really be here? Kotetsu twisted and looked over his shoulder—there, his Kaede, running toward him.

_**KILL! BUNNY!**_ the Objective screamed. _**KILL HIM!**_

There'd be time for Kaede later, just like everything else: after the Objective was done, he could spend all day with Kaede, the rest of his life with her if she wished. He started to turn away when he noticed her eyes glow blue.

"**Objective!**" she cried.

_Objective?_

But that's as far as she got, because at that moment, a thunderous boom erupted from the other side of the street. Everyone turned and stared at the sports car now flying through the air, tossed up by Sumo Thunder's sonic blast, and hurtling toward Kotetsu.

He recognized it as an attack, something meant to incapacitate him permanently, so they could all do whatever they wanted to him, stop his Objective and let him waste away in insanity. But then he recognized the car's trajectory would overshoot him… and hit Kaede instead.

Kotetsu activated his power.


	25. Tension

Kaede watched the car fly at her, a lethal mass of red steel and black iron tumbling through the air, but before she could even scream, she left the ground, and _she_ was flying, soaring, like she had a rocket under her feet, with a warm, solid force enveloping her. She heard the car crash, the scrape of metal and glass on stone, but the rocket kept zooming upward, taking her with it, so impossibly high…

After a few seconds, the motion stopped, and her weight settled back onto shaking knees. Kaede opened eyes she hadn't remembered squeezing shut. She stared at a bright blue glow, someone's NEXT power, along with the tattered collar of a green shirt and a distinctively trimmed beard. Her savior set her on her feet, then knelt beside her and smoothed her hair away from her face, smiling slightly.

"Dad!" she cried, activating her NEXT ability. "You have to stop! Obje—"

But she knew this feeling. It was familiar to her, the exhilaration in her every sense, everything a hundred times clearer—Hundred Power. Her dad swept her away from the impact just in time, and then jumped up to a rooftop with the both of them. Which means he had touched her, to save her life.

And now Barnaby was doomed.

"Sweetie, it's dangerous here. You could get hurt," Kotetsu said, pressing a kiss to Kaede's forehead.

"No way…" Kaede whispered, staring at her hundredfold-strong hands. _The power's gone. Bellisair's power is gone!_

"Daddy's sorry, sweetie," Kotetsu continued. "I guess I forgot you were supposed to visit today. I promise I'll make it up to you, but stay here for now, okay? I don't want you to watch me kill Bunny."

Tears beaded at the corner of her eyes, and she grabbed Kotetsu's vest. "No, Dad, don't go! Don't do it!"

With Kotetsu's Hundred Power outclassing Kaede's, he gently unwrapped her fingers and stood. "Stay away from all the heroes. Including me. Just so I know you're safe," he told her. "I'll be back soon." With that promise, he leapt away from the roof in a blur of blue light.

Kaede drew on the power deep within her and jumped after her father, but only cleared half as many rooftops. Nevertheless, she chased him, falling behind in their game of leapfrog, and she saw him charge up and leap from the Bronze Stage to the Silver Stage above them. His light vanished—his minute might have already ended—but Kaede still had time. She hopped to the same rooftop Kotetsu had chosen, and then jumped as high as she possibly could, still falling fifty or sixty feet short of the Silver Stage. Landing back on her rooftop, she tried again—and again—and again—

Another force plucked her out of the air by the wrists, and with her NEXT ability active, she felt the shift from the full-body tingle of Hundred Power to a sort of rush in her lungs and stomach, like pure oxygen.

"Miss Wild, you have to go back to the hospital!"

Kaede looked up at the costumed Keith as they started zooming through the air with his jet pack, away from the Silver Stage.

"But my dad—"

"You need Bellisair's power! I can get you to the hospital fastest, but we can't lose any more time chasing Mr. Wild! Trust the other heroes to stop him!"

Swallowing, Kaede nodded, and Keith adjusted his hold from her wrists to a firm hug around her waist, holding her beneath him in a hang-gliding position.

"Let the air carry you, gently! We'll go faster that way!"

Kaede took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, feeling the air currents shift to her will. Their speed increased accordingly as Keith adjusted his own powers and urged the jet pack onward.

_I don't want you to watch me kill Bunny._

Flying at a maximum wind velocity off the charts, Kaede could pretend her tears were from speed, not from fear. She didn't want to watch her dad to kill Barnaby, either. She didn't want him to kill Barnaby at all.

* * *

><p>Janus Square, once a center of Silver Stage shopping, tourism, and culture, had fallen out of fashion recently. While the shops and cafes still did a brisk trade, very few people lingered or made use of the benches scattered around the square. Barnaby had no trouble identifying people as they passed—a blonde boy clutching his mother's arm, a redheaded girl with a scarf, an older couple walking hand-in-hand. Yes, here Barnaby and Kotetsu would recognize each other instantly, and probably wouldn't be accosted by eavesdroppers.<p>

The only blind spot consisted of an enormous statue in the center of the square, dominating the space, a towering sculpture of two human forms, back to back, facing opposite directions—an artist's tribute to the Roman god Janus, with the ability to look both forward and backward at the same time. Barnaby had never appreciated the ability to look in two directions at once, until he had someone to watch his back. Without constantly worrying about the evils behind him, he could focus more clearly on the problems before him, and Barnaby knew he provided Kotetsu with the same comfort by facing his troubles behind him. Together, nothing escaped their sight. Nothing could defeat them when they worked together.

Examining the statue, Barnaby noticed a few points where the human figures fused, touching each other at a few points along the legs, back, and at the back of the head. True, Janus wasn't really two people—he was simply a god with two faces, one looking forward and one looking back. Of course, that gave rise to the pop-cultural perception that Janus was also the god of liars and traitors, and otherwise 'two-faced' people.

Barnaby found a seat in the shadow of the statue, staring at the sky as it gradually grew pinker with sunset.

God of traitors? Ridiculous.

* * *

><p>"Tiger touched Kaede? Did she at least give a new Objective?"<p>

"_No, he touched her before,_" Ivan reported to Karina and Pao Lin. "_Sky High-san is taking her back to the hospital, and Bison-san is a bit… busy._"

In the background of the call, the girls could hear a deep, booming voice, "_You'll pay for what you did to my car, you bastard!_" with Antonio shouting in return, "_Calm down! It's just a car!_"

"_Tiger-san's on the Silver Stage now, too,_" Ivan reported.

"He's getting further from the hospital, and closer to Barnaby" Pao Lin said. "Sky High can fly fast, but he can't fly Kaede back."

"I know that," Karina mumbled. _We're running out of time._ "Can we shut down Janus Square?"

"_Maybe with a false bomb threat, but that will involve the police, and we'll have to explain ourselves._"

"Besides, Barnaby's a hero. He'd respond and find out it's a lie."

"_And it'd put civilians in danger._"

"Okay, okay! Bad idea!" Karina admitted, jittering her foot.

"Can we use our transports?" Pao Lin asked.

"They won't be fast enough. And we screwed up traffic on the Gold Stage, a lot of people are going to be taking detours in the Silver Stage."

"What about your Blue Rose motorcycle!" Pao Lin suggested excitedly. "That's light and fast!"

"But Kaede can't ride without holding on to one of us!" The pitch of Karina's voice rose gradually as she spoke. "And I'd have to go to Titan Industries and fight Robert to let me take it out since there's no call, and Fire Emblem's hero car is too far away, and it's not like we can take the Chasers from Apollon without…"

Karina suddenly trailed off, then suddenly started digging in her backpack.

"Blue Rose? Do you have an idea?"

"Just a second!" Karina found a bulky black purse and dumped a blue wig and matching makeup compact out into her hands.

"You have your costume with you?"

"Just the head and face stuff," Karina said. "If I do my makeup myself, it cuts my response time, and I score better."

"But what are you going to do?"

"I think Blue Rose can get us a new ride."

* * *

><p>Kotetsu ran, past the people, past the stores, past the streets, finally free of obstacles and determined to make up for lost time. Janus Square was still a long distance away, especially on foot, but stopping was not an option.<p>

He couldn't believe they had dragged Kaede into this. Such a dirty trick, to make him slow down. His horror and betrayal stayed a step removed from his actual feelings, but his friends had thrown his daughter into his path on purpose. The whole point of Kaede living in Oriental Town was to keep her away from all of this madness, let this be his burden, and no matter what happened to him, at least Kaede would be safe.

The Objective changed all of that. Though he had found the will to save his daughter over the terrible noise, Kotetsu finally realized that he was out of control. He couldn't tell what were his own thoughts anymore. He barely felt his actions. But, he had also passed the point of no return. The only way to get back under control was to kill Barnaby. Kill Barnaby, and this will all be over.

_**KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!**_

A silver flash inside one of the stores caught his eye. Pausing, the storefront advertised a Japanese restaurant, sushi and the like, and they had a long katana on the wall.

He was tired and weak. His power was on recharge. And he couldn't risk failing to kill Barnaby, because if Barnaby realized Kotetsu was out for blood, he'd naturally run away. He needed a weapon. He needed that sword.

Kotetsu entered the restaurant, brushing past tables and patrons and heading straight for the sword, mounted on the wall behind the bar.

"E—Excuse, sir, excuse me," a harried young waiter tried to catch his attention. "Can I—Can I help you?"

Kotetsu ignored him, pushed through the low swinging barrier separating behind the bar from the rest of the establishment, and judged the distance from the floor to the mounting. Yeah, he'd need to stand on the counter to reach it.

So he did.

A few people gasped in shock. That waiter insisted that Kotetsu wasn't allowed to stand there, but Kotetsu just lifted the sword from its mounting and lightly ran a finger along its edge. Real. Perfect.

"Sir! Get—Sir, get down from there!" the waiter insisted. "And put that sword back!"

Kotetsu ignored the second order, not only that, but also grabbing the sheath hanging right beneath the sword, but he followed the first one, hopping down from the counter.

"Look, I need to borrow this," he told the waiter, fishing in his pocket for his wallet. "You can have all the money. And you'll know I'll bring it back because it's got my ID."

"Sir, this is—you're crazy!" the young man insisted. "That's a piece of memorabilia, it's not for rent—"

Dropping his wallet on the counter, Kotetsu shifted his grip on the sword and swung it in a wide arc over his head, stopping half an inch above the waiter's skull. He hadn't practiced kendo since he was a kid, but the basic strikes stayed in his muscle memory. Unfortunately for the poor waiter, he had no previous experience with people swinging swords at his head, and with an undignified squeal, he crumpled to the floor, fainted.

Kotetsu stepped over his body, leaving the restaurant as suddenly as he had entered. He took barely a moment to sheathe the sword and sling the carrying strap over his shoulder before he once again broke into a run in the direction of Janus Square.

In the restaurant, a patron kindly revived the fainted waiter while someone else checked the wallet that had been left behind. The drivers' license said that it belonged to Kotetsu T. Kaburagi.

Where had he heard that name before?

* * *

><p>The early crowd of regulars at Burning Rubber was already starting to trickle in, a hardened crew of motorcycle enthusiasts covered in leather, piercings, and tattoos. They greeted each other with hard back-slaps and loud insults, before settling down for the first round of drinks.<p>

Barely a few sips into their whiskey, a figure appeared at the door, leaning against the frame and showcasing her curves. She had patent leather shoes, knee-high stockings, a skirt worn a little high to show off as much of her legs as possible, and a white blouse tied around her bust in the approximation of a bra, simultaneously showing off her midriff and ample cleavage. To top it all off, she had ice-blue lips and hair, and brought with her a chilling arctic wind.

"Lost, lady?" a grizzled man with a scraggly beard grunted.

The girl stepped inside slowly, approaching the bar with carefully measured clicks. "Help a hero out, would you, fellas?" she purred.

"A hero?"

"Why should we think you're a hero?"

As if it wasn't obvious, the girl raised her hands in the air and glowed with a NEXT aura, dropping a little flurry of snowflakes onto the collected patrons.

"You're Blue Rose!" a younger biker recognized her.

"Oh~! You _got me_…" Blue Rose turned away coyly and winked at the biker.

"Blue Rose is a schoolgirl?"

"Shh, don't blow my cover!" Blue Rose spun, letting her skirt flare dangerously. "I'm in _disguise_ as a schoolgirl, see?"

"So what's Blue Rose doing in a place like this?" another biker asked.

She placed her hands on her hips. "Who's the owner of the motorcycle with the sidecar outside?"

A man with a red bandana and studded wristbands raised his hand. "That's mine."

Blue Rose approached him, standing with her weight thrown onto one curvy hip. "Mind if I take it for a little joyride?"

"Oh?" the biker leered at her. "Well, if you give me a kiss, I'll let you."

The bar laughed. Blue Rose did not.

"How about I give you a slap across the face?" Blue Rose snapped coldly.

The man's eyes lit up. "Done!"

"…Seriously?"

The man nodded eagerly, so after a minute's hesitation, Blue Rose pulled back her hand and let loose, striking the man across the face with a resounding _slap_. Several people whistled and shouted catcalls, and a few more asked Blue Rose to slap them, too, in exchange for other favors: free rides, drinks, and 'bodyguard services.' She ignored the offers and waited for the man to pass her his keys, before retreating from the bar (blowing one last kiss over her shoulder, because she still had an image to maintain).

Out in the parking lot, Karina rushed to the motorcycle with the sidecar, Pao Lin standing beside it.

"Did you get the keys?"

Karina jingled the key ring at Pao Lin, then started re-adjusting her uniform back to normal—letting the skirt fall back to its proper length and untying her blouse, exposing her bra. Pao Lin gasped and covered her eyes.

"Oh, come on, they're nothing you don't have," Karina said, tugging a sock out of each cup. "Besides, these are yours."

"That's… not the issue here…" Pao Lin peeked around her fingers and gingerly took her socks to Karina could button up, just holding the cottony workout socks in midair.

"Then what? We had to, Blue Rose is bustier than I am," Karina said. Re-clothed as normal, though still missing her neck ribbon, Karina flipped one leg over the motorcycle. "Well? You get the sidecar until we get Kaede."

"Right!" Pao Lin stuffed the socks into her pocket and hopped into the sidecar. "Wait, where am I going to sit once we get Kaede?"

"Behind me, of course."

"Oh!" Pao Lin's cheeks flushed as the engine roared to life. "U-Um, if you want me to…"

* * *

><p>Keith and Kaede landed at the front doors of the hospital, spooking a few visitors with their sudden fall from the sky, but they ran inside, the flustered Kaede occasionally causing a few eddies of air to swirl behind her. In the company of a (masked) Hero of Justice, the staff and patients gave Kaede a much larger berth than before. A few called for Sky High to stop for an autograph, a picture, a message of support, but Keith gently brushed them aside, citing an emergency, and making a mental note to visit everyone in the hospital at a later date.<p>

Through the halls, to the elevator, through more halls to Bellisair's room, the torched criminal still lying unconscious where the heroes had left him, and then much more tentatively back through the halls, to the same elevator (Sky High commandeered a carriage for them, and turned away all other passengers. "This girl must not touch anyone!") back down into more hallways, then the lobby, and then the parking lot. The pair looked around for Antonio's car, or really, any sort of hero-affiliated transport.

"Where are they!" Kaede cried, scanning the rows of cars for any sign of other heroes.

"I don't know, and again, I don't!" Keith responded, warming up his jet pack for an aerial scan.

The roar of a motorcycle cut them off, and a blue-haired schoolgirl and another girl in a yellow tracksuit pulled up just in front of them. Pao Lin leapt out of the sidecar to sit behind Karina.

"Get in!" Karina ordered, and Kaede climbed over the metal side, keeping a safe distance from the NEXT powered heroes.

"A motorcycle! Good idea!" Keith complemented. "How did you get it?"

"I slapped a biker," Karina said. Pao Lin nodded as if to add, 'it's the truth.'

"All right! You have Miss Wild! Where should I go?"

"Everyone has to get to Janus Square!" Karina decided. "We've lost Tiger, but we know he's headed there! If you can stop Barnaby on the way, do it! Anything to slow them down!"

"Got it!" The Sky High jet pack ready, Keith leapt into the air and flew away, quickly shrinking into a pinprick in the sky.

Karina revved the motorcycle and pulled back out into traffic, weaving in and out of cars until they reached the freeway, at which point Karina really pulled out all the stops on engine power, zooming toward Janus Square, before it was too late.


	26. Objective

As the last rays of sunlight vanished and cast harsh shadows across the two faces of the towering statue, heroes raced toward Janus Square from all directions, toward the unknowing target, Barnaby Brooks Jr. The late-afternoon shopping crowd was already growing bored and tired, and the square began to empty as they left for home. Barnaby impatiently paced around the statue in circles. He knew he had promised to wait at the square until Kotetsu arrived, but when? Would he have to spend all night in this park? Would Kotetsu spend all night fighting to get here? Without a way to call the old man and schedule another meeting time, Barnaby had to wait. He had to wait, right where Kotetsu knew to find him, until he arrived.

"Bunny!"

Barnaby whipped around toward the source of the sound. "Kotetsu, are you here?"

"Bunny? Bunny!"

He quickly circled the foot of the statue, spotted his partner, tattered and bruised after who knew how many obstacles and trials. Barnaby broke into run. "Kotetsu, what happened?"

Kotetsu didn't answer the question; his eyes locked on Barnaby and he staggered forward, his ankle rolling. "Bunny!"

"Who did this to you, Kotetsu?"

Before Kotetsu could answer, a gale force wind flooded the square, stirring up blinding dust and stopping the two heroes in their tracks. Barnaby squinted behind his glasses at the suspected source—Keith, in his Sky High suit, calling down a great wind to block Kotetsu's advance.

"Mr. Wild, stop!" Keith built up a sphere of air and launched it at Kotetsu, blasting him off his feet and sending him tumbling back into a storefront, where he hit the wall. Keith prepared another attack.

"_Stop it_!" Barnaby shouted. Activating his power, he grabbed the nearest heavy object—a park bench—and flung it at Keith. Unprepared for impact, the wooden struts shattered against the hero and knocked him back away from the square. Barnaby took advantage of the confusion and still air to run to Kotetsu's side as the older hero began to stir.

"Are you all right, Kotetsu?" Barnaby asked, helping Kotetsu sit up. "You were right about the First League—and all this time, I never noticed what they were doing to you…"

Kotetsu groaned, blinking through the pain, when he seemed to see Barnaby anew. "Bunny…" He reached up and clasped Barnaby's shoulder with one hand—well, sort of his shoulder, a bit closer to his neck. But no matter how hard he gripped, Barnaby's Hundred Power skin resisted the pressure. Thinking Kotetsu's death grip was from pain or fear, Barnaby took Kotetsu's hand in his own and squeezed back reassuringly.

"It's okay now, Kotetsu," Barnaby soothed. "I'm here. I won't abandon you."

"Bunny—Bunny—"

"What is it you needed to see me for?"

Kotetsu reached for the sword on his back. "Dammit, I can't—get it—"

"What is it?" Barnaby helped Kotetsu to his feet, who continued clawing at the hilt of the katana on his back.

"Sword…" Kotetsu muttered, grasping the handle and pulled the sword a few inches out of the scabbard, but his tumble had shifted the sword's angle on his back. He had no room to draw it. "I… I need it…"

In the distance, the engine of a motorcycle revved, just as Barnaby suggested an easy solution.

"Here, lean over a little. I'll draw it for you."

Kotetsu bent obligingly as Barnaby gripped the sword's hilt and drew it from the sheath with little effort.

"Kotetsu, why do you have a katana?" Barnaby questioned, turning the sword over in his hands and letting his power die, seeing no more need for it.

"Give it to me," Kotetsu said, reaching out for the sword. "Just give it back, okay?"

The sound of the engine drew closer.

"Will you promise to explain it?" Barnaby asked.

"Anything. Give me the sword."

On the other side of the square, the motorcycle with the sidecar and three female passengers launched out from one of the side streets, barely turning in time to avoid the central statue, and barreling toward the two heroes on the other side.

"All right," Barnaby flipped the blade and offered the sword to Kotetsu. He took it with his good hand, adjusted his grip, and then added his injured hand.

"_Tiger_!"

"_Barnaby!_!"

Kotetsu swung the sword back, preparing to strike.

"_DAD_!"

The two turned. The approaching motorcycle was almost on top of them, Karina squeezing the brakes with all her might as the machine screamed, burning rubber as the vehicle aimed to thread right between Kotetsu and Barnaby. Barnaby, obeying an instinct of self-preservation, took two steps back. Kotetsu, seeing another obstacle, just twisted his stance and prepared to swing at any one of the three people riding the motorcycle.

With one last lurch, the motorcycle stopped, and Kaede braced herself against the edges of the metal pod and stood, catching Kotetsu's wild eyes.

"**Objective!**" she shouted. "**Uh… **_**Take off your tie!**_"

The katana fell from Kotetsu's hand and clattered to the ground. He reached for his neck and deftly loosened the knot, creating room for the decorative buttons to slide through. He pulled on the long silk tail, inch by inch, until the knot unraveled completely, and then tugged it free of his collar and dropped it in a little spool on the cobblestones at his feet.

"Objective complete."

Everyone stared at Kotetsu—nervous, confused, hopeful, fearful. He blinked a few times, staring at the ground with his eyebrows furrowed, and he placed one hand on the side of his head.

"It's so… quiet," he mumbled, rubbing at his temple. "Weird…"

"Dad?" Kaede whispered.

Kotetsu looked up and noticed his daughter. "Kaede? What are you doing here? Wait, did you miss school today?" Kotetsu folded his arms in his best—though still terrible—Disapproving Father look. "Kaburagi Kaede, does Grandma know you're here?" But almost instantly, another potential reason dawned on him, and he continued in horror, "Oh no, I thought the junior skaters' performance was _next_ month! I—I didn't miss it, did I?"

Tears in her eyes, Kaede leapt from the sidecar and flung her arms around her father's waist. "Dad!"

"I—I'm really sorry, sweetie! I mean, I know you were the cutest of them all, but I—" Kaede squeezed all the harder, and Kotetsu gasped, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Careful, careful!"

"Kotetsu? What's going on?" Barnaby asked, glaring slightly at the First League Pao Lin and Karina.

"It doesn't matter anymore," Karina let out a sigh of relief, cutting the motorcycle engine and sharing a secret smile with Pao Lin. "We did it."

Pao Lin grinned and offered Karina a fist-bump, which Karina returned.

With a puff of air, the recovered Keith landed beside the motorcycle, glancing between Kotetsu (with Kaede still clinging to his front) and Barnaby.

"Is everything okay now?"

"We did it!" Pao Lin offered Keith the same fist-bump, but he didn't seem to understand the gesture, and instead flung his hands in the air.

"Thank goodness! And again, thank goodness!"

"Why are you saying 'thank goodness?'" Barnaby stepped around the motorcycle and approached Keith. "You attacked Kotetsu! Why would you do that?"

"It was a delay!" Keith answered. "You see, I needed to buy time for Miss Wild!"

"Miss Wild? Do you mean Kotetsu's daughter?"

Kotetsu and Kaede, having apparently determined that the skating competition is, indeed, next month, and this visit was a surprise, turned their attention back to the group. Kaede still refused to let go of her father, keeping her arms around him as he left one hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, so if there's no skating, why was Kaede with you guys?" Kotetsu asked the other girls.

"Oh—um, well…" Karina and Pao Lin glanced at each other, looking back at Keith for salvation.

Rather than Keith, yet another car pulled up toward the pedestrian square, its driver, Antonio, and its passengers, Nathan and Ivan. Nathan burst from the front passenger door and skipped toward the assembled heroes.

"I think I see _happiness_ here~!" he squealed, clapping his hands together.

"So was Tiger-chan successful?" Ivan asked.

Antonio nodded. "Looks like it."

"You guys—uuf!" Kotetsu began, but Kaede snuggled him a little tighter, cutting him off, so Kotetsu resumed stroking her hair to try and soothe whatever was troubling her.

"None of you are making any sense," Barnaby complained, turning to his partner. "I need answers, Kotetsu. You haven't been to work in three days, you kept calling me and giving strange instructions, and none of this accounts for your injuries or why the other heroes attacked you. Where were you?"

"Where was I? I was…" Kotetsu paused, and frowned. "Damn, I've been everywhere."

"Everywhere?" Barnaby echoed.

"Yeah, and none of it makes sense," Kotetsu said. "I spent all last night going into Bronze Stage hotels."

"Why would you do that?"

"I thought you were staying in one of them," Kotetsu said. "Were you?"

"No," Barnaby answered. "And why would you check every hotel?"

"Because I didn't know which one was yours…"

"What was so important that you had to check every single hotel to try and find me?"

The heroes held their breath as Kotetsu pondered his reason—if Kotetsu confessed outright to his Objective, Barnaby's trust in him would forever be destroyed.

"…Nothing, I guess," Kotetsu finally decided, and the heroes exhaled in relief.

Barnaby was much less relieved. "_Nothing_?" Barnaby repeated, a livid undercurrent seeping into his very controlled voice. "So all of this was just another of your moronic, tactless schemes?"

"Don't go blaming me!" Kotetsu insisted. "Even if I don't remember why, I had to find you! I just—had to! I didn't eat or sleep, and Sky High's dog attacked me, and Blue Rose tied me up in my own house!"

"That wasn't me!" Karina protested. "Well, Dragon Kid and Rock Bison helped!"

"But then how do I account for _your_ involvement?" Barnaby turned his attention back to the other heroes. "If Kotetsu really had no reason in searching for me, why were you so adamant in keeping him away from me? All this pain would have been avoided if you hadn't decided to interfere!"

Though the heroes understood that, no, there would have been a _lot_ more pain if they hadn't interfered, no one could come up with a fully encompassing answer, so they stood there helplessly looking at each other.

"I believe I can explain," a voice cut in.

The heroes all whipped around to face the newcomer.

"Bonjour, heroes," Agnes Joubert said with a sly smile.

"Ms. Agnes?" Barnaby said, staring at the executive producer as she approached, heels clicking professionally.

"Well done, everyone," she said. "I can officially call our dry run of the Hero Chase an unmitigated success."

"Hero Chase?" Kotetsu echoed.

Agnes flipped a lock of hair over her shoulder. "I'm always looking for ways to make Hero TV even more exciting. One of our main draws is the competition between heroes, earning points and crowning a King of Heroes. And I wondered, what other ways could we decide which hero is the best?"

"I don't understand," Barnaby said.

"Sorry I made you the dupe this round, Barnaby, but this was an exercise in the new Hero Chase rules I'm developing," Agnes explained. "The working title for these rules is Delivery Style. Tiger was tasked with finding you at all costs, while the other heroes worked together to provide obstacles and stop him. Your ignorance to the situation was one of the main dramatic points that made this story really _work_, don't you think?"

"But what does my daughter have to do with this?" Kotetsu asked, holding Kaede a little tighter.

"After a while, the situation started to remind me of the prelude to the fight with Albert Maverick," Agnes said smoothly. "And one of the elements that made that episode of Hero TV so exciting was the appearance of an innocent child. When we broadcast this for real, we'll most likely use a contest winner, not your daughter. But last minute, I needed someone with experience with heroes and who wouldn't compromise their identities."

"So was this all a publicity stunt?" Barnaby narrowed his eyes at the executive producer.

"Not yet, anyway," Agnes said. "I needed proof of concept before I pitched these rules to the OBC board of directors. If you managed to play this game so thrillingly for three whole days, I can easily see these Hero Chase games as being a great hit." She approached Kotetsu and patted him on the arm. "And Tiger, you've done a great job, shockingly enough. Time and time again you've escaped the First League, and you even held your own in a direct fight with two First League heroes and the whole Second League with no powers or wires. You could use that as evidence in a proposal to return to the First League. You've earned it."

Kotetsu's eyes widened a bit. "W-Well, Agnes, I'm flattered, but… no one told me anything about this."

"Oh, we did."

"But I don't remember it."

"Of course we told you."

"But I know I'd remember something like this." 

"You've probably forgotten because you've been knocked unconscious so many times. Do you think we could pull off this sort of game without your consent and cooperation?"

"But Agn—"

"Because if you _hadn't_ agreed to participate…" Agnes held up a finger and cut Kotetsu off. "Then you'd be personally responsible for all damages you've caused over these last few days, one-hundred-percent out of your pocket. But, since you _did_ agree, Hero TV covers the damages and you don't have to worry about any of that."

Kotetsu glanced down at Kaede and tried to mentally calculate the cost of everything he had broken in his mad and apparently pointless hunt for Barnaby. It roughly equaled Kaede's college savings, and jeopardizing her future with his apparently aimless destruction was out of the question.

"…Right!" he laughed nervously. "Good thing I totally agreed, Agnes!"

Barnaby adjusted his glasses. "But this doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't make sense?" Agnes rested one hand on her hip. "I planned every last detail, from the humble start to this final confrontation."

"I don't mean to be rude, Kotetsu, but you usually aren't this good at keeping secrets," Barnaby said. "Especially about something frivolous like this. You sounded so distressed when you called me. There had to be another reason you wanted to meet. Something that would cause you to take such a silly game seriously."

"Another reason?" Kotetsu rested a hand against his beard, struggling to remember.

"That's silly, Handsome~!" Nathan interjected. "Ms. Agnes just explained the whole game to you~!"

"Fire Emblem's right!" Pao Lin added. "It was all just a game!"

"And you know Tiger's faked being serious before, too, in the right situation," Antonio continued.

"I remember!" Kotetsu cried suddenly, peeling Kaede off of his side. "Bunny! I remember exactly why I needed to find you!"

"No way!" Karina gasped.

"Tiger, it's not what you think!" Nathan reached out as Kotetsu closed the distance between himself and Barnaby.

"You're right that it was serious," Kotetsu said solemnly, reaching into his pocket. "I had to see you, and it didn't matter how long it took or how hurt I got. The reason I had to see you…"

He took Barnaby's hand and passed him a small object.

"…was this."

Barnaby looked down at his hand. Resting gently in his palm was the toy robot his parents had given him all those years ago, undamaged and safe.

"I was at your apartment when the sprinklers all busted," Kotetsu continued. "And I didn't know if it was really waterproof or not. So I saved it for you!"

"I thought it had been lost, or thrown out by accident…" Barnaby said quietly, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. "You're right. This is important. Thank you, Kotetsu."

"Aw, don't mention it," Kotetsu grinned. "What are partners for?"

The heroes once again breathed a sigh of relief as they avoided the second crisis.

"Now, if you're done being sappy, Tiger, you should go to the hospital for your hand," Agnes pointed to Kotetsu's sleeve-bound hand. "I'll arrange a hotel for you three, and the other heroes will bring your things to you. Right?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Antonio promptly agreed.

"Wait, wait, three?" Kotetsu frowned, confused.

"You, Barnaby, and your daughter," Agnes explained.

"Oh, no, Kaede's going _home_. Before the last train," Kotetsu decided.

"But _Dad_!" Kaede protested.

"You dragged her out of school because you thought it'd be dramatic to have a little girl in the middle of all the danger, but she can't miss two days in a row. Not for something like this," Kotetsu said. "I mean, if it was a real emergency, I'd be absolutely fine letting her stay the night, but this was all just a game!"

"You're kidding!" Kaede stared at her father in dismay. "That's totally not fair!"

"What's not fair about it? This isn't like the Maverick thing. It wasn't a crisis. You just skipped school, and that's all there is to it."

"Actually, Tiger," Nathan cut in. "Crisis or not, this has been a rather stressful experience for everyone involved, and your daughter needs some credit."

"Huh? Credit?" Kotetsu raised an eyebrow at Nathan.

"If it's school you're worried about, she can do lessons with me while you and Barnaby are at work," Pao Lin said. "My tutor would definitely let her join, and we can find some lessons her level!"

"Besides, you brag constantly about how smart she is. She'll make up that schoolwork in no time," Antonio added.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kotetsu asked.

"I think what we're trying to say is…" Karina placed a hand on Kaede's shoulder. "Your daughter doesn't care about some, uh, game for Hero TV... as much as she cares about spending time with you."

Picking up on her cue, Kaede turned her biggest, cutest puppy-dog eyes on her father, glistening brown orbs of pure adorable boring into his paternal soul.

"Can I stay, Daddy?" she asked with a voice half her age. "Please?"

Heart overwhelmed by his daughter's adorableness, Kotetsu's lower lip trembled as he held out his arms. "All right. C'mere, sweetie!"

Kaede hugged him once again, loudly declaring, "I love you, Daddy!" her self-satisfied, grinning face hidden from her father's view. After a minute, she did pull back and ask, "Hey, can we get ice cream?"

"Right now?" Kotetsu made a face. "Daddy's tired, sweetie…"

"Not _right_ now! Kaede amended. "But before I go back, I want to get ice cream with you!"

"Heh, sounds good," Kotetsu ruffled Kaede's hair. "Oi, Bunny!"

Having largely faded into the background after the flood of relief over the security of one of his precious mementos, Barnaby looked up. "Yes?"

"Wanna get ice cream with us tomorrow?

At this moment, Kaede struggled to contain a very undignified freak out—ice cream with her two favorite heroes. Just. Might. Happen.

"When?" Barnaby asked.

"For lunch, I guess."

"You can't have ice cream for lunch. And you nag _me_ about eating properly."

"C'mon, Bunny, Kaede's in town. We should treat her!" Kotetsu said.

Barnaby looked away. "I don't want to intrude."

"You're not intruding!" Kaede blurted, but she quickly covered with an attempt to surpass her previous cuteness levels, psychically sending the message: _My dad is your best friend and I am an adorable child. You totally want ice cream with us._

After another minute, Barnaby gave in. "All right."

"Thank you so much!" Kaede exclaimed, reaching out to grab Barnaby's arm while still holding on to her father's.

"Well, first thing's first, Kotetsu, you should see a doctor for your hand," Barnaby said, pointing to the improvised bandage.

"I… sorta don't have a car," Kotetsu admitted, neglecting to explain why as he gathered up his fallen personal belongings, the necktie and katana. "And I need to give the sword back to its owners. I made a bit of a scene trying to borrow it."

"My car is in the Gold Stage. So I suppose we have to call a taxi?"

"Pretty much."

Kaede cared very little about their transportation arrangement, so long as she continued to stay in the presence of both her father and her idol, and happily clung to both their arms.

As Tiger and Bunny with Tiger Cub worked out their plan of action, Agnes turned her attention to the other heroes.

"Like I said, I'll work on reservations for them," she said. "But I need someone to retrieve Barnaby's luggage and get new clothes for Tiger."

"Mr. Barnaby's things are at my house!" Keith volunteered. "I will bring them!"

"I'll get Tiger's stuff," Antonio said. "And Kaede's."

"All right. Tomorrow, we'll have a debriefing with everyone who helped. But for now, all of you, get a good night's sleep… and good work."

The heroes shared happy, relieved smiles, and all went their separate ways as the evening wishing star appeared in the sky.


End file.
